


The Air Is Fine Up Here

by rosymamacita



Series: Ark Rebels [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Ark AU, Canon-Typical Violence, Class Issues, Doctor Clarke, Earth finally, F/M, Fluff, Guard Bellamy, Love at First Sight, Mentions of Prostitution, Rebellion, Rebellious Princess, The Drop Ship, mature themes, or maybe its just lust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-04-25 22:49:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 41,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4979635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosymamacita/pseuds/rosymamacita
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if the Ark wasn't failing? What if there never was a problem with the air at all. Ark Station will apparently make it another hundred years until they are sure the earth is habitable again.</p><p>The rules are less draconian. No automatic floating for any adult crime.</p><p>Second children are not a capital offense. They are however, the lowest of the low, a waste of air. They are given no rations or housing allotment, no education, no medical care. No resources are given to Seconds at all. And the families they came from? They are in disgrace.</p><p>When 23 year old new doctor Clarke meets Bellamy, he is a low level guard playing in gladiator tournaments to make credits to support Octavia, and is in need of medical care from Clarke's unsanctioned clinic on Factory. </p><p>The thing is, even though the Ark itself is functioning just fine, the people of the Ark are a powder keg of anger, injustice and resentment, and someone has to do something before the last of humanity destroys itself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Slumming It

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was nominated for the 2016 Bellarke Fanfiction Awards. Thank you very much. I am honored to be counted among the great writers of this fandom.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Clarke spit at Bellamy, when he showed up in her off hours clinic in Factory again. This was the third time this week he’d come to see her for stitching and a badly bruised rib. “Are you doing this on purpose?”

“Yup. How else am I gonna get to meet the pretty new doctor.” He smirked at her through his split lip. “Maybe I’m trying to work up the nerve to ask you out.”

“Take off your shirt. Let me see that rib from Monday.” He winced as he pulled off his shirt. The bruise on his side had spread, but was nicely yellowed at this point. She ran her hands over his skin. It was warm and soft like the old velvet throw her mother kept in her room. She cleared her throat. “Feeling better?”

When she looked up at him, she found him staring at her. “Why are you doing this?”

She snorted, but continued to examine his fading bruises. “Because you’re a walking punching bag, apparently, and don’t know how to duck.”

“No. I don’t mean me. I mean this. You’ve been doing this clinic for what? Three months?” He took the hand from his side and held it between his own, battered hands. He looked around at the corner of the rec center, where she’d set up an impromptu, unsanctioned clinic behind a folding screen. 

“Maybe I’m trying to meet guys who like to get beat up a lot. Alpha station gets kind of boring, you know. Same old same old, all the time. Everyone walking around without bruises.” She tried to avoid looking at his eyes, but she didn’t want to pull her hand away from his. 

He gave her a disbelieving face. “Yes. I can see why you’d want to meet the dregs of the Ark down here. We’re fascinating. You probably spend all your credits on medicine and bandages and all this, too.” He waved his hand at her supplies, set out on the tray next to where they sat. “I’m pretty sure you didn’t steal them from your real clinic, Doctor Griffin.”

“Call Me Clarke,” she said. She was still not used to being called Doctor, even though she earned the title, finished her apprenticeship and was now an actual qualified physician. “Doctor Griffin is my mother.”

“Right,” he said. “Princess Clarke, daughter of two council members. Betrothed to Prince Jaha, chancellor’s son. Slumming it on Alpha.” He said it bitterly, although his face was mocking.

“I’m not.” She bit off between her teeth. “And that’s not true. That’s just gossip.” She didn’t really want to talk about it, because once upon a time it was true. 

She and Wells had grown apart. They wanted different things now. They believed different things. “What about you?” she tossed back, lobbing his nosiness right back at him. “Why are you doing this? Look at you? You’re beaten to a pulp. You said you were a guardsman. You have a decent position. You don’t need to be putting yourself through this gladiator show.”

“It’s for the credits,” he told her, looking into her eyes, still holding her hand between his. “My sister’s a second.” He tilted his head just a little, waiting for her reaction to his words.

“Oh,” she said quietly. A Second. Second child, born outside of the sanctions of population laws. Someone, somewhere had decided that if a family decided to break the law, in addition to stiff penalties, that second child should be given none of the Ark resources. No food rations. No housing allotment. No education. No medical treatment. Seconds were considered the lowest of the low on Ark Station. Wastes of air.

Her jaw clenched. That’s why he had to submit to these underground battle games, winning prizes, so he could feed and house his sister. “Do you actually make any credits doing this? Because, hate to break it to you, you suck at it.” Without meaning to, her free hand rose up to brush against his split lip. 

His lips parted slightly under her thumb. She touched his bruised eye gently. 

“I threw the tournament,” he whispered, eyes still locked on hers. “I was paid off. I had to. If I didn’t, Octavia would have had to…” finally he broke her gaze. “I promised her that she would never have to do that. I promised my mother before she died that Octavia would never have to do what we did to get by.” His adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed heavily. “See, so getting beaten to a pulp once in a while isn’t all that bad.” 

Clarke saw how Bellamy couldn’t meet her eyes. It made her mad. 

She’d heard too many arguments between her mother and father about how the council should handle the powder keg that was the lower classes. Abby always argued for a cool head, to help people as the need arose, but Jake saw the problem as systemic. He’d been to every part of the Ark in his role as head engineer, and had seen the profiteering, the prostitution, the near orphans left to fend for themselves, the gambling rings and the black market. He argued that the whole system of entitlement and rationing on the Ark had to be radically altered.

But Clarke had grown up hearing them argue about council matters. Nothing ever got better. The Ark had gotten worse. They floated the troublemakers, instead of sending them to the skybox, but that only fanned the flames of discontent. Whoever thought that humanity could ever survive together on one Ark without tearing itself apart, when they couldn’t manage it with a whole planet at their disposal. 

She shook her head in disgust.

Clarke didn’t think that the Council could do anything at all to help anyone. They were all far too satisfied with the way the Ark worked, with them on top. And that was why as soon as she’d become a doctor in her own right, she had bought supplies with her own credits and spent all her rec time down here, doing the only thing she knew how to do.

“When was the last time your sister saw a doctor?” 

He looked at her finally. Relieved for the change of subject. “Not since my mother died. A year, almost two.”

“Bring her to see me. I’ll give her a check up.”

“It doesn’t bother you that she’s a Second?” There he was, looking for her reaction again.

“It does, but not in the way you think.”

He was silent for longer than she was comfortable. But she couldn’t break the silence either. And her hand felt warm in his. She liked it there.

“The way they treat Seconds is wrong,” she said quietly, like she didn’t want anyone to hear it. There were always people listening, looking to work an angle. That was true on Alpha and it was true here in the shadows of the lower stations, too. “The way they treat you down here on Factory, on Mecha, on Hydra…I just…”

“Just what?” He leaned forward, his head stopping just shy of hers.

“Something has to be done,” she said and it was barely more than a whisper.

“What should we do?” he whispered back. 

‘We’, he’d said. His lips looked full and soft, despite the injuries. She was a fool. “I don’t know. This is all I know how to do.” Her hand twitched in his, helplessly. 

His eyes fell to her lips, then. She felt her heart speed up. She hadn’t planned on meeting anyone like Bellamy down here. She wanted him to kiss her, and it was not in the plans. Whatever plans she had.

But he didn’t kiss her. He cleared his throat and leaned back. “I’ll bring O to see you,” he said. His voice was husky. 

She nodded while he stood up, and put his shirt back on. She stepped back. He smiled at her and nodded when he turned to go.

“Hey, Bellamy?”

He turned back around as if relieved that she would call him back.

“Yes, Clarke?”

“If you were going to ask me out, you should have done it before,” she gestured vaguely at her own face, “while you were still pretty.”

He blinked and a broad smile stretched over his face. He winced at the cut lip, touched it briefly. “I’ll be pretty again, Clarke.”

“Not if you keep letting them beat you to a pulp, you won’t.” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Is that your professional medical advice, doctor?”

She couldn’t stop the slow spread of her own smile. She blinked slowly at him. “It is.”

He only half smiled this time, and her knees went weak. Maybe it was only to save him from the pain of this cut, but it didn’t stop her from wanting him.

“I’ll try to stay pretty for you, Princess.” He nodded, and ducked out of the screened off area. 

Clarke blinked after him. Trying to calm her beating heart before calling in her next patient.


	2. On The Verge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke is still working at her illicit clinic, when Wells discovers her on Factory, and tries to bring her back to Alpha, back to being proper. All Wells does is make her sad and angry. Frustrated.
> 
> The Blake siblings, on the other hand, they give her the feeling that anything is possible.

It had been a long four months. All the double shifts, first at her official clinic and then in Factory with her personal clinic project, were starting to get to her. She could use a break, but they needed her here. She wish she had a nurse to help out, smooth things over, or even a clerk to help her keep records. It was even more important to pay attention to the patients medical histories when they weren’t a part of the system. This clinic was turning out to be even more of a commitment than she had anticipated. 

She sighed, and finished writing notes on her last patient. She had just a few more patients, even the Factory workers had headed to bed. The morning shift started early down here.

“Clarke!”

She heard the familiar voice and grimaced at what she knew would be coming before she turned around to face him. “Wells.” 

He glared down at her, disapprovingly, his arms crossed over his chest, looking even larger in the cramped corner. “Is this what you’ve been doing? ” He waved his hands at the makeshift clinic. “Is this where you’ve been hiding?”

“I’m not hiding,” although she kind of was. She looked around as if seeing it from his perspective. She used a dining hall table as an exam table, and was carting around her medical supplies in a wheeled crate. The poor lighting of Factory station created more shadows than it did light, which was probably good, because the walls of the rec center were terrifyingly pitted with rust. “I am being a doctor.”

“Do you know how freaked out your mom is? You should have seen her face when I told her about this clinic. You couldn’t have just had a boyfriend or girlfriend down here? She could have dealt with that. That we’re familiar with.” His face said he wasn’t even disappointed any more. He was used to being disappointed by her. 

Well, she was disappointed with him too, and how he always followed the rules he was told to follow, whether they were right or not. When they’d broken up, she’d definitely been looking to tweak his self righteous snobbery, and had taken to hanging out on Mecha, and dating whoever caught her eye. Even after he moved on and got a better, more obedient girlfriend, it obviously still drove him nuts that she had done that.

“I’m a doctor! I can’t believe you’d rather I was hooking up than treating patients.”

“You’re putting yourself in a position that isn’t good for you, Clarke.”

“If you have to come down to places like Factory, just hang out with your lover or whatever. Don’t put yourself forward. You don’t want people to start paying attention to you down here. And if you need to have that attention, then for god sake. Come back to Alpha. Work with your mom on the genetic engineering project. You can get a lot of accolades through that if it finally succeeds. I bet you’d get a promotion and an increase in credits? Old Mrs Caulfield is about to be sent to palliative care. Her apartments will be opening up soon. If you stop this nonsense, we can get them assigned to you.”

“I’m not doing this for the accolades,” she spat. “And don’t try to bribe me with prime housing assignments. Is this how you use your position in GoSci? Did my mother ask you to find me? Did you use all your access to the records to hunt me out for her?” She shook her head. 

“I did what I had to do. We’re trying to protect you.”

She sighed. “Wells, you don’t get to protect me anymore. I’m not yours. Maybe I never should have been.”

“I get it, Clarke. We aren’t together anymore. Fine. But I’m still your friend, and I’m looking out for you. It’s dangerous for you to be down here. It’s not… safe.”

“I’m safe, Wells. There are guards here. I have my martial arts training… I did almost as well as you did, if you’ll remember. And I have a scalpel tucked up my sleeve.”

His hands dropped to his side. “You don’t.”

She leaned into him. Held up her arm to show him. “Hell yes I do. And I know where to stick it, if it comes down to it.”

His eyebrows drew together.

“I’m not stupid, Wells. And I’m not naive. I’ve heard the rumors. I know what’s going on down here.”

“Then why do you come here? Can’t you just volunteer extra at your regular clinic. You can still be a doctor there.”

“Because not everybody feels like they can come to the clinic. Some people don’t trust GoSci, some people don’t have time between their shifts, some people don’t get any medical credits.”

“But, those are just the se—“

“Those are citizens of the Ark, and this is where I can help. Do you need an examination?” Her blood was steaming. 

“No, I didn’t come here for that. I came to tell you to come back to Alpha.”

“Okay. You told me. Job well done.” She shook her head slowly and definitively. “Now you can go back to my mother and tell her I’m being my normally rebellious and stubborn self. You can commiserate with her about how I never do what I am supposed to and always have to argue with the both of you.” She pursed her lips, remembering the days they used to gang up on her, trying to get her to change her mind on everything, trying to get her to not be her.

“I didn’t come here for this, Clarke.”

“Then why did you come?” 

“You’re too soft, Clarke. Too kind. You shouldn’t put your self out like this. They’re going to eat you up.”

“I’m not. I’m not soft. Go back and tell my mother that this is what I’m doing. It’s what I can do to help, and I’m doing it.” 

“Clarke…”

“Goodbye, Wells. You know arguing won’t do any good when I’m set in my decision. And I’m set in my decision. Time for you to go, I have more patients to see.” She turned her back on him and messed with the instruments on the tray, even though she didn’t need to.

He shook his head tightly. “We may not be together anymore Clarke, but you’re wrong about one thing. You will always be mine, my best friend, my family.”

She heard him leave and had to stand there for a moment, just remembering with sadness. It was too hard to spend time with him now. She didn’t know if that would change ever. She liked to think it would someday, but right now, she couldn’t really be around him.

“Holy shit,” she heard a girl say. “Was that Wells Jaha?”

She turned around, plastering a smile on her face and ready to brush off the visit from the chancellor’s son, but when she saw Bellamy, the smile fell right off her face.

“Bellamy.” His bruises had healed. He was more beautiful than the first time he’d come in. 

“Seriously, was that him?” Clarke tore her gaze away from him to the girl standing next to him. If it was possible, she was even more beautiful than Bellamy was. 

She stuttered “Y-yes. That was Wells Jaha. He’s, he was a friend of mine. He doesn’t exactly approve of my illicit clinic.”

“Wow,” she said. “I feel honored. Little old me in the presence of royalty.”

“I brought my sister in, Princess” Bellamy said, with a slight smile. She wasn’t sure if it was a smirk or or uncertainty. “Like you asked.”

Clarke shook her head to clear it. “Right. I thought you’d forgotten.”

“You mean you thought I ignored you.”

She huffed a laugh. “Yeah, okay. I thought you blew me off.”

He shook his head. “I wouldn’t ignore my doctor’s advice.”

“No more bruises,” she said and stepped forward and raised a hand to his face. “Your lip is healed too,” She was a doctor, dammit. Examining his injuries was part of her job. There was no reason for it to be so hard to breathe.

“All healed,” he said softly, looking down on her, from so close.

“How are your ribs?” she was aiming for a professional tone, but it came out husky and low. He smiled at her and lifted his shirt for her to see. She ran her hands over his ribs, looking for tenderness. “Any pain?” she asked, quietly, lost for a moment in the heat of his skin, his muscles, the silky skin.

“None.” Her eyes fluttered up to his, deep brown and full of… something.

“Ahem,” Bellamy’s sister cleared her throat.

Clarke stepped back. “So, you’ve given up fighting for money?”

“I just learned how to duck,” he said, a wry grin curving his lips. He dropped his shirt. “Clarke, this is my sister Octavia.”

“Octavia,” Clarke said, pleased. “I am glad you could make it in. I have some vaccinations that I’ve been saving for you. Your brother tells me it’s been a while. If he would step on the other side of the screen, I can give you a full check up.”

Octavia was eyeing her, suspiciously. Her hair was back in utilitarian braids. She wore a simple pair of jeans and layered tank top. She didn’t look any different than anyone else down here on Factory, really, but she still had a wild look about her. As if she could do anything at a moments notice, as if the rules of Ark society didn’t quite apply to her. For some reason, she made Clarke feel as if anything was possible, as if life was on the verge of becoming something entirely different.

She nodded to her brother. “Go on, Bell. The doctor and I will be good.”

Bellamy frowned at both of them, as if he was torn. As if he didn’t trust them. Clarke wasn’t sure if it was his sister he didn’t trust or her. Clarke laughed, and pushed him out of the screened area. “Other side of the curtain, Guardsman Blake. It’s Octavia’s turn to have her private physician. What do you think I’m going to do to her?”

He stood speechless as she manhandled him and then pulled the screen closed in front of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had thoughts about how the delinquents managed to survive on the surface after being protected on The Ark for so long. They should be completely unprepared... but they aren't. 
> 
> Aside from being going to school for Earth Skills and taking self defense and martial arts in school, I think we need to realize that the grounders are not the only ones who are surviving in a hostile environment. 
> 
> The Arkers are locked in a metal box in an airless, freezing void surrounded by radiation. There are limited resources and what resources there are are distributed to those in power, leaving the powerless very close to not being able to survive.
> 
> The farther down they go on the food chain, the harder they will have to fight to survive. We already know that there are drunks and addicts, prostitution, the blackmarket, neglected children, murderers, plots and bombs... this is canon. Raven herself carried as many weapons as she could, hidden about her body, and that started before she ever got to earth. 
> 
> I kind of wanted to explore the struggle of the lower stations that caused some people to be desperate enough to risk floating and blow up their fragile ark and steal an exodus ship, and also created a bunch of kids who could survive and thrive when dropped on another hostile environment without even water canteens.
> 
> I don't think this story will be fluff.


	3. Look out, Bitches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke encounters Octavia for the first time, and yeah, now she's sure the Blake siblings will change everything.

Clarke gave Octavia as thorough an examination as she could, not knowing when she’d be able to get back to see her. She gave her a series of vaccinations and checked on her birth control implant, which was functioning fine. If there was one service the Ark provided the seconds, it was the most reliable birth control possible. 

“You are actually in perfect health, Octavia.” Clarke said, sitting in front of the girl on her stool

“Bell makes sure I take care of myself. And when I get careless, he does it for me.” She laughed.

“I guess that’s what it’s like to have a brother.”

Octavia shook her head. “No. It’s all Bell. He’s the one who’s special. I’m not the only second on this station. There are other brothers. No one else is like him.”

Clarke drew her eyebrows together and carefully avoided meeting Octavia’s eyes. “Do you mind if I ask you some questions… about growing up the way you did?”

“Okay,” she said slowly, suspiciously. “I have nothing to hide. It’s not like there’s anything worse than being a second, a bastard, and a whore’s daughter.”

Clarke laughed then and did meet Octavia’s eyes. They were full of humor and intelligence. “Bellamy said that he and your mother did…things to support you.”

Octavia nodded. “Yes. She slept with people for credits, for favors, for food, for clothes. My mother was a whore. She was a very beautiful woman. She was also very smart, something that most people never gave her credit for, but you’d be surprised how her intelligence helped her get by as a whore.” She had never talked to a person who was so open and unashamed about things she had always been taught were shameful. 

“And your brother?” She knew this question was out of bounds but she couldn’t help it. 

“He doesn’t like whoring. When he sleeps with someone, it is because he wants to.” Octavia gave her a direct look. “My brother is a very practical man. He does what is necessary, but he does whatever he can to be able to live with his choices.”

“Like getting beaten up for credits?”

Octavia smiled at her. “He says he won’t do that anymore.” Clarke felt her face heat up with a blush. Octavia was watching her closely, still smiling. “I asked him to train me to fight in the games. Women’s fights are almost as popular as men’s fights, and to be honest, most of the people betting just want to see almost naked hot bodies grappling with each other. I can fight. I can do it.”

“He doesn’t want you to, does he?” Clarke said.

Octavia shook his head. “No. I’m not allowed to fight or whore. He says I contribute enough sitting at home embroidering fancy clothes for the upper stations.” She rolls her eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, it brings in some credits and I’m grateful for that, and I’m pretty good at it. I’ve been sewing since I was 3. I can take apart an old worn out pair of blue coveralls and turn it into a lovely dress for a girl’s 13th birthday, complete with star motif embroidery and tiny, little, sparkling glass beads on the neckline.”

“Tha—that’s my dress!”

Octavia grinned and nodded. “Your father commissioned it. I’ve met him. He’s a good man. Actually, he helped us out around then. They were trying to keep Bellamy out of the guard cadets, because of me, because his family had a second, but he took one look at Bellamy’s scores and said that couldn’t happen. He actually tried to get him into GoSci Academy, but even he couldn’t push the idiots that far.”

A thought bothered Clarke. She would have kept it to herself, but Octavia was so open, it made her want to be, too. “My father— he didn’t— with your mother?”

“Are you asking if my mother slept with him to get Bellamy into the cadets?” she shook her head. “No. He came because of my mother’s official job. She was a seamstress. I did the fancy work, as a team we made such beautiful clothes that even our bad reputation didn’t keep customers away. Your father wanted a pretty dress for his princess. That’s all. And I told him about Bellamy. And he did the right thing. The guard are still assholes about us though. Bellamy should have been promoted by now, but, well.. You know…” she pointed at herself. “Second.”

“It’s been harder since your mom died, hasn’t it?” 

“She brought in a lot of credits. And together, we could take on more sewing projects than I can manage myself. I guess I never really understood how much time my fancy stitching took until I also had to do the plain stitching. That’s why Bellamy threw the tournament.”

A pang of worry shot through Clarke. “But now he won’t do that anymore, you said?”

“He’s worried about his ‘pretty face,’” Octavia snickered.

Clarke found herself shaking her head, refusing to think about what he might have to do to support them. “Octavia. I want you to work for me.”

“What?”

“Yes,” she rushed on, not really stopping to think about it. “I need a guard. You said you know how to fight. I don’t think my mom will let me keep coming here without someone with me.”

“Clarke, I’m a second and I’m not any bigger than you. Why do you think I can be your guard.”

“You said you know how to fight, and your brother can train you more. And I don’t want some big hulking brute, he might scare away some of my more nervous patients. I want someone who can fade into the background. You’re perfect. And you can help me with the other stuff, the patients, taking histories, the paperwork— wait, you know how to read and write don’t you?”

Octavia snorted. “Of course I do.”

“I’m sorry, I just know that seconds aren’t given an education…”

Octavia sat up straight. “My brother taught me everything he learned, and then some. I bet I know more about earth history than you do. And I can write like anyone’s business. My favorite is poetry, but I guess that’s not what you’re talking about. I can do paperwork. Can you afford to hire someone?”

She nodded. “I’m still living at home, saving my credits, and my grandmother left me some. I don’t spend a lot, and a doctor does pretty well on Alpha. I can pay, and I will pay you what doctor’s assistants are paid on Alpha.”

“Do you seriously want to hire me? Even though I’m a second? It could cause problems for you, and maybe you’re not used to handling that kind of attention the way I am. I just roll with it, but you? Are you going to be able to deal with the stain I will bring on your status? I just want you to be aware, because I’m in if you are.” 

Her voice was hopeful, optimistic. How could a second be optimistic? Clarke was in awe of this girl. “I know how seconds are treated on this station. They are treated like trash. Some say they should be floated upon birth, and their parents with them. But you…look at you. How are you so strong?”

Octavia raised her eyebrows at Clarke. “Because they are wrong. They are wrong about me, and they are wrong about seconds. And they are wrong about Bellamy. That man out there?” she pointed her thumb at the other side of the screen, “He’s the best man on Ark Station. Believe me. I know. I’ve seen the worst, the best and everything in between, because no one thinks they have to put on a good face for me. Bellamy Blake is the best that humanity has to offer to the universe, and he loves me. Therefore, when everyone says I am worthless, they are simply wrong.” 

Octavia looked up at the ceiling of the rec center and waved her hand around. “This place, it’s wrong. The Ark is wrong. Their rules are wrong. I’m not the one who is messed up. But I don’t belong here.”

“Where else would you belong?” Clarke asked. She was the doctor, the Alpha station princess, the one with all the learning and the status and the power, but this second girl seemed to know more about life than anyone she’d ever met. 

Octavia sighed. “That I don’t know.” Octavia hopped off the table and stood next to Clarke. “But I get the feeling, Dr Clarke, that you don’t belong here either.”

Clarke shrugged her shoulders, not understanding the prickling behind her eyes. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Yeah you do. C’mon Clarke. I accept your job offer. Now you have to come with me.”

“Where are we going? Is this everything my mother always warned me about Factory?” she joked, “The bad influences, the peer pressure, the dangerous people?”

Octavia squinted and then nodded very slowly. “Yes. That is exactly where we are going… but not on Factory.”

“Wait. I’m not done here with the clinic. I still have patients and I have to take my supplies back to Alpha.”

“You have no more patients. We were the last. Bell doesn’t like to take me around crowds where he can’t predict how people are going to treat me.”

“He’s very protective,” Clarke said, unable to keep from admiring him even more, after everything that Octavia had told her.

Octavia sighed. “He sure is. And he’s going to help me bring all your stuff to our apartment. My first task as your employee is to make your clinic easier for you. If we keep your stuff here in factory, you won’t have to lug it back and forth between Alpha. Bell!” she called out, and Bellamy immediately came back into the screened off area. His eyes went directly to Clarke. “We need to take my boss’s stuff back to our apartment.”

Bellamy was shaking his head, his eyes never leaving Clarke’s. He’d heard everything. “No, O. This is a bad idea. We don’t take charity.”

“The hell we don’t. We’ll do whatever we need to. What you mean is that you don’t want charity from her.”

His jaw clenched, and Clarke knew he was going to refuse to let Octavia come work for her, but then Octavia stepped up to her brother and leaned into him. 

“She can’t be down here alone, Bell,” Octavia said, and it was the quietest she’d spoken her entire visit, as if she had nothing to be ashamed of when she talked about herself, but there might be someone listening to her now, talk about Clarke. Bellamy stared her down. “You know it. She needs someone to watch her back. She needs someone who knows how things work down here or she’s going to be in danger. We need to protect her. You have a job already. No one else will hire me. I’m going to help her, and keep her from getting into trouble.”

Her temper snapped. Everyone always thought she was a helpless child. “I can take care of myself,” Clarke whispered harshly at them. They both whipped their heads around to pin her with matching fierce glares. She took an involuntary step back.

“Pack up your things, Princess,” Bellamy said as he turned to the screen and started folding it. It was a standard room screen, easily collapsed. “We’ll keep them in our apartment and Octavia can have them back here for you, all set up, tomorrow after your real clinic shift.”

“Wait. You’re letting her?”

He shook his head and looked her up and down like he already deeply regretted his decision. “Welcome to the family, Princess.”

Octavia threw her hands in the air triumphantly. “Look out, Bitches! Here we come.” She hugged her brother. “Oh yeah, and you’re taking us to Agro after we store all this stuff.”

“O!” Bellamy cried disapprovingly. 

“What’s in Agro?” Clarke asked.

She looked back and forth between them. “We have to celebrate. I have a job.” She pointed a finger at the medical supplies laid out on the tray. “Tell me where all this goes, and let’s get this show on the road.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have this theory that even though The Ark really struggles with class issues, I mean, to such a degree of inequity that their society is on the verge of collapse, they have also pretty much eradicated things like misogyny, homophobia, racism. No one cares what color you are, what gender you are, or what your sexual preferences are. They've also pretty much gotten rid of rape culture. That impressed me on the show, that even though these delinquents were free to be all Lord of the Flies, there was not even a hint of violence against women, or because of race. And Lexa's kiss is taken pretty matter-of-factly. It's not an issue. 
> 
> As for the prostitution issue, I'm aware that this might be a sensitive topic, especially in regards to what Bellamy would or wouldn't do for Octavia, but remember what Bellamy said to Shumway, when he took Octavia from the party. "I will do anything. Anything." In the end, Shumway calls on him to kill Jaha, but in the context of what their mother did to avoid surprise inspections and to get Bellamy into the guard, we can imagine what he was implying when he said he would do anything. This also refers back to the theory that no one cares what sexual preference people have. There is no stigma for that.


	4. A Little Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke isn't sure she should follow Octavia to Agro for her mysterious adventure. 
> 
> Bellamy isn't sure they should take her there. 
> 
> Neither Clarke nor Bellamy is sure they can really stay away from each other, so off they go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's my moonshine party and I'll fluff if I want to.

Octavia was right. Their apartment was around the corner from the rec center and it took only moments to store the supplies behind the door there.

Clarke refrained from making any mention about how tiny the one room residence was, because she shouldn’t have been shocked. There were baskets of sewing piled in the corner, but aside from that, not much else. A table and two chairs. Two bunks.

They didn’t spend any time there, though, and soon Octavia was leading her through the main halls, off Factory. She was kind of glad that Octavia kept up a running commentary, asking questions about the clinic and what her duties might be. It meant that Clarke only had to answer her questions, and didn’t have to talk to Bellamy at all.

She kept shooting him glances, trying to figure out what he was thinking as they went through the nearly empty halls. This was definitely not a busy time. Most people were off this shift. Most people were in bed, asleep, as she should be. She really didn’t know why she agreed to go with the Blakes. She looked at him again, slightly behind her and Octavia. 

His lips were pressed into a firm line and his brows drawn together in a frown. She could almost still feel his skin under her finger tips, and was fighting the urge to touch him again, but this serious, focused man was so different from the flirt she’d met in her clinic.

“Here we are,” Octavia chirped. They were in a section of Agro where Clarke had never been. She really liked the gardens. Sometimes they hosted events there, with chamber music playing as Alpha station notables strolled underneath the fruit trees and espaliers. They’d always gone there on class trips, also, to see how edibles and botanicals were grown and to learn about biology. Octavia opened the door and gestured her through.

“O,” Bellamy said, raising an arm, blocking Clarke from entering, “I’m not sure this is a good idea. We should just take her back to Alpha before this goes any farther.”

Clarke tried to be insulted, but it didn’t work, because his obstructive arm was too close to an actual embrace. The crook of his elbow rested curled slightly around the bend of her waist, even though his hand was braced on the door jam, and his chest was only millimeters from hers. Her eyes travelled up his biceps, to his chest and shoulders, past his strong jaw, to his eyes, glaring at his sister. Damn her and her racing heart.

“Too late for that, brother of mine. She’s ours now.” Octavia’s grin was positively feral. Clarke tried not to feel a thrill at the way she claimed her, for them. 

Bellamy hadn’t moved, still holding her at the door. Her eyes went back to his to find him staring at her. “This is a bad idea,” he said. But she could swear that he was now leaning into her, just a bit.

She tilted her head as she looked up at him, remembering how Wells said she should take a lover on Factory… or something like that. “Too late,” she said, and licked her lips involuntarily. He watched her tongue peek out and his eyes darkened. She decided to go with it. “I’m yours now,” she repeated and leaned in the rest of the way so her breasts brushed his chest.

“This is a very bad idea,” he said, huskily.

“Ugh,” Octavia cried, and grabbed Clarke’s wrist, pulling her through the door and breaking Bellamy’s blockage/embrace. “Just come in.”

It wasn’t like the garden of Agro that she was familiar with at all. It was more like a lab. The walls were white and reflective, and everywhere she looked, there were stainless steel racks of plants growing in water. The air was moist and smelled what could only be described as very, very green. She drew in a deep breath. 

It wasn’t beautiful at all. If anything, it felt clinical, and alien, almost. She followed Octavia, Bellamy closing the door behind her and she felt like she was pushing through some great cool, many tentacled beast. It was like getting lost in a dream, definitely not beautiful, but strange and oddly healing.

A tall gangly man wearing goggles stepped out in front of them. “Oh ho! Who is this? You bring a guest! Without vetting first? Octavia,” he placed one hand dramatically over his heart. “I am disappointed in you. Bellamy, how could you allow this?”

Bellamy threw his hands up in the air and shook his head.

The man in the goggles stopped in front of Clarke. He slid his goggles to the top of his head and peered down at her. “My name is Jasper Jordan, night engineer of the hydroponic soy fields.” He waved a hand at the racks of plants. “They mostly take care of themselves, but I do have to keep my eye on the experimentals,” he jabbed a thumb in the other direction. “And who might you be?”

Clarke lifted her chin and held out a hand to shake. “I’m Dr Clarke Griffin.”

Jasper shook her hand and offered her just about the widest smile she’d ever seen. She felt welcomed.

“Griffin?!” A voice yelled from the direction Jasper had pointed. “Did you say Griffin?!!” Clarke dropped his hand and stepped back, finding herself very close to the safety of Bellamy Blake.

There was a rustling in the green leaves until a woman, golden skinned and beautiful poked through the vines.

“RAVEN REYES YOU BE CAREFUL WITH MY BABIES!” Jasper cried, rushing up to disentangle her from the plants. “Get out of there!” he grabbed her and pulled her out of the greenery. 

“Raven?” Clarke said, absolutely astonished. 

Raven came up to Clarke and threw her arms around her. “I haven’t seen you in so long.”

“You stopped coming to my dad’s engineering get togethers. It was like you dropped off the face of the earth.”

“Nah, just got sent back to Mecha. Those idiots in engineering wouldn’t know a good idea if it bit them on their asses. Apparently I wasn’t respectful enough of someone’s pet project and I altered the mechanics to make it more efficient.” 

“Don’t be modest, Wrench Monkey,” Kyle Wick stepped out of the very same patch of greenery, buttoning his shirt, while Jasper fussed with the vines in their hydroponic feeders. “You did that to everyone’s projects. That’s why they were all scared of you and got you demoted.”

“You weren’t scared of me.” Raven said to him, letting go of Clarke to hug Wick instead. 

“That’s because I respect your brilliance enough to know that you make me better.” Raven blushed and took a breath to retort, but he kissed her before she could.

“Do you two not have a room where you can get it on? You have to do it in my plants? This batch is due for harvesting tomorrow. If you disturbed the pods I am banning you from Moonshine Monday.”

Raven rolled her eyes. “They’re fine, Jasper. I wouldn’t hurt your fields. Just looking for a little privacy.”

“Did you say, moonshine?” Clarke asked, her mouth suddenly dry. She could really use a drink.

Jasper clapped a hand over his mouth. “Oh, shit. You aren’t vetted. Damn. You’re supposed to be accepted by everyone before you find out about the moonshine. I am not going back to the skybox for this— I mean, it’s perfectly legal. I bought it from the exchange.”

“Give it a rest, Jasper,” Octavia said. “Raven vouches for her. And I vouch for her. And best of all, Bellamy vouches for her. No one is as suspicious as Bellamy. The whole vetting thing was his idea. He wouldn’t even let me in until everyone checked me out.”

“To be fair, Octavia,” Raven said, “I don’t think that was about protecting us, I think it was about protecting you, but you are right. He’s the most paranoid asshole of our whole bunch. If Bellamy says someone is okay, she’s probably okay.”

“So what about her, Bellamy?” Jasper asked. “Is she okay.”

She turned around to look at him and found him standing very close to her. Her traitor heart sped up again. “What about it, Bellamy,” she whispered huskily. Traitor voice, also. “Am I okay?”

He didn’t smile. “She’s okay,” he said to Jasper, his eyes locked with hers.

Traitor breath. It kept getting away from her. 

“All right.” Jasper said. “Good enough for me.” 

Raven grabbed her arm and led her down the narrow path behind Jasper. 

“I’m sorry my dad demoted you, Raven. I missed you when you didn’t come to his gatherings anymore. I think he started them more to give me a social life than anything else. You were my favorite part.”

“Hey,” Wick said. “What about me?”

“I liked beating the pants off of you in poker,” she said. “You have no game face.”

“Do too.”

“No, you don’t, Wick,” Raven said. “But don’t feel bad, Clarke. I actually got a promotion in Mecha. I’m the Special Projects Supervisor now. And I’m called in to engineering as an advisor on a regular basis. Usually for Wick, or your dad, or Sinclair… you know, the ones who are not pompous idiots.” Clarke nodded in understanding. 

“Uhm, Raven,” She hated to ask. “Finn’s not here, is he?”

She sighed. “Not today. He’s been spending more time with his girl friend, Mel. But she is NOT vetted.” Raven led her through the soy plants to a lab area, where a few people sat around a table on stools. A jar of something suspiciously liquid sat in the middle.

“I vouch for her too,” one of the people said as he turned around on his stool. “Not that anyone asked me.”

“Monty!” Monty jumped off of his stool and came to hug Clarke.

“Raven’s not the only one who stopped coming to your dad’s gatherings. He said you were too busy with your studies and being a doctor finally. You left me with no one to talk to except stupid Wick.”

Wick grinned. “I feel no one values my brilliance.” He poured himself a tin cup of moonshine and took a drink. Raven punched him lightly and stole his cup, before wrapping herself around him and nuzzling his neck. 

“When did you two get together?” Clarke found herself asking, glad that Raven had found someone, someone who was actually a good guy, after the Finn debacle. 

“After I got sent back to Mecha,” Raven said, “I found out I missed him.” She immediately hid her face behind her cup and took a huge gulp. Wick looked at her with melty eyes. He definitely had no game face, at all.

“What about the rest of you,” Bellamy said, his tone rather sharper than Clarke was used to. “Are you going to vouch for her too?”

“Not I,” said a girl with dirty blonde hair. “I’ve never met her. Hi. My name’s Harper.” She smiled and kicked her legs a bit on the stool.

The last person caught her eye. Nodded to her. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll vouch for her too.”

“Now I know you didn’t go to any engineering parties, Miller. How do you know her?”

“Grew up on Alpha. 12 years of school together.”

“I’m sorry you got caught, Nathan,” she half whispered to him. She remembered the day he was thrown in the skybox for stealing. His father had been heartbroken. But she wasn’t surprised. 

When they were in class one day, she’d seen him stealing a watch from the asshole who had bullied her all through lower school. He looked her in the eye as he removed it from the jerk’s pack, and nodded to her, like it was righting a wrong. She never told anyone. Always after that, it was like they had a secret, silent ally in each other. 

“It wasn’t your fault. I made a mistake.”

“So you know almost everyone here, Princess,” Bellamy glared at them all. 

“Yeah,” Jasper said, handing her a glass. “Welcome to Moonshine Monday. I’m surprised no one has ever invited you before.”

“She was always so serious,” Miller said. “I didn’t think she’d want to come.”

“What’s wrong with being serious?” Bellamy asked, and got a room full of rolling eyes for it.

“Nothing,” Clarke said as she turned to him again. Octavia was handing him a cup. “But sometimes we deserve to have a little fun.”

“Now that I can drink to,” Jasper said, after making sure everyone had a cup. “To having a little fun!”

Everyone cheered as they drank, except for Clarke and Bellamy. They were silent. And as they drank, their eyes locked, both knowing that what they were drinking to was the promise of a private kind of fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sky Crew assemble.


	5. Shut It Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke's illicit clinic is finally shut down by the guards, a last minute warning coming from an unexpected source.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to miss a day of writing because I really was stumped about where to go next with my story. What I've written up until this point was set up for my AU. I knew I wanted my delinquents back together and I was intrigued by how their lives might have turned out on a functional Ark, so this was pretty easy. 
> 
> The problem was trying to figure out how to get them into trouble so they end up where I want them to go in the story arc. I am totally pantsing this story. No plans other than a vague idea. So now, I'm just going to throw new problems at them, and see what happens.

Three months later, she and Octavia were in their rec center clinic, interviewing an elderly patient about her diet deficiencies, when Murphy, of all people, stuck his head around the screen. Murphy had finally been vetted into their weekly gatherings, mainly because Octavia wouldn’t let his little sister, Charlotte, a fellow second, twist in the wind without friends.

“Clarke,” he said, his voice full of an anxiety that was at odds with his normal sarcastic bastard personality, and his wide eyes frightened, “The guards are coming to shut you down. NOW.”

She and Octavia shared a shocked glance that lasted only a millisecond before Octavia jumped up and started throwing supplies into Clarke’s medical bag. It wasn’t until Clarke heard the heavy boots pounding down the corridor that she shook her head free of the shock.

“Go!” She told Octavia. “Forget the supplies. Get out of here!” Octavia stopped filling the bag. They both knew that Clarke had protections; being a doctor, hailing from Alpha, being rich, having council members for parents. She was connected and the guard would not come down on her. Octavia had none of those protections. 

“Be careful,” Octavia hissed, before latching the box of medicines, hugging that and the medical bag to her chest and slipping out the back of the screened area. 

“Come on,” a harsh whisper said. Murphy had waited for Octavia. Seconds stuck together when the guards were concerned. Clarke prayed that they would get away, but knowing her, she would. The girl knew how to escape into the shadows. All seconds did. 

When the screens were torn down, there was pretty much nothing left in the clinic area but a doctor, some gauze and bandages, and one very confused old lady.

“Can I help you?” Clarke said calmly, ignoring the stun batons that were pointed her way.

“This is an illicit black-market exchange,” the tall blonde guard said.

“This is a clinic, and giving medical care to people is not illegal.” Clarke said, peering at the woman’s name tag. “Major Byrne”

“Exchanging goods and services on the black market is illegal.” 

“There was no exchange,” Clarke said. She was very careful of that, not even taking any of the gifts her patients kept trying to give her. “Everything I did or gave out in the clinic was a donation to my patients.” She didn’t have to mention it if Octavia and Bellamy perhaps ended up with more food rations or small trinkets than they might have had otherwise. They hadn’t provided any services or goods. And she hadn’t received any payment.

“Take it up with the council,” Byrne said, and nodded at the guards, who began confiscating everything they could find. Even the stupid folding screens. 

“That’s my personal property,” Clarke said, not even offended. Honestly, she had expected it since she had opened the clinic, six months ago. 

She hoped Octavia would go into hiding, the way seconds always seemed to be able to do, and not go back to her apartment, just in case. If they knew about the clinic then they would know about the second that she’d hired as her assistant. 

With Murphy with her, it was likely he’d lead her someplace off the grid. It was an odd feeling to be in the debt of someone like Murphy. He was a sneaking rat, but he was the kind of sneaking rat you wanted on your side. She was glad for him.

“Black market items are to be surrendered to authorities.”

As usual, Octavia had understood exactly how the Ark worked, and had made sure to take the most valuable medicines and instruments with her, before the guards could take them and they “disappeared,” only to end up on the black-market, where they would have to pay ten times as much to get them back. She was thankful, yet again for Octavia’s quick thinking, because she really wouldn’t have been able to afford another portable image resonator. That took a lot of credits. 

“All right then,” she said, her heart beating and raised her two arms out to the Major, wrists up. “Go ahead. Hand cuff me. Take me to the skybox.”

Major Byrne pressed her lips together into a tight line. “Those are not my orders,” she said, and Clarke knew right then that she really wanted to arrest Clarke. She had broken the rules, even if she had sidled around the actual laws, and she also knew that nothing would happen to the princess of Ark Station. “You are to be taken directly to the council chamber.”

Clarke looked at Byrne head on. Byrne looked back. In some strange way, even though Clarke was breaking the laws and Byrne was upholding the laws, they both knew that they both had the best interests of the Ark at heart. But Clarke wouldn’t be punished for her criminal behavior because she was connected, and the people of Factory station would lose needed medical care because it was criminal to give it. 

Clarke nodded and simply walked away from the disaster of the raided clinic, papers and gauze fluttering about. Byrne walked swiftly after her, escorting her to her punishment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MURPHY!!!!!
> 
> I love that little bastard. No idea what kind of trouble he might find on the Ark, but I'm certain he will. 
> 
> Making Charlotte his sister and a second is the first change I have made to canon outside of the "what if" of the Ark still being functional. Their relationship has no connection to the AU change, I just thought it would be an excellent way to incorporate two slightly off characters and also show how not every second makes it out of their situation unscathed. Bellamy and Octavia really are special. 
> 
> And I really was trying to find a way to get Murphy into the inner circle. He's such a bastard, he never would have made it through the vetting, unless there was something else tying him to the group. Enter Charlotte, the second.


	6. A Good Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After having her illicit Factory clinic raided by the guard, the council reassigns her to medical research, where she will no longer have contact with patients from other stations. It's actually a promotion, more a bribe to keep her from causing trouble with the lower stations than a punishment. 
> 
> Left with her mother and father, Clarke has to face their feelings about her rebelliousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I missed a day writing yesterday because I was stuck. So apparently you get two chapters today. Woohoo.

“How could you, Clarke!?” her mother finally cried, winding down from the long list of her supposed crimes. Except Abby never considered anything Clarke did to be a crime against the laws of Ark Station, but rather a crime against her own expectations of her daughter.

Honestly, Clarke kind of wished she could have stayed in the council chamber, with Thelonius. All he did was look down upon her with that stern visage of his and reassign her to a medical research position. She was no longer allowed to treat patients, especially not ones from other stations. The reassignment was barely even a punishment. It was technically a promotion, with a large increase in credits to go with it. To her, it felt like a bribe, an incentive to stop making trouble on Factory. It started a fire burning in her, but she did not feel chastised.

The worst part of the council chamber had been a stone faced Wells. He stood behind his father, keeping records for him and acting as his assistant, and avoiding her eyes. He was a newly assigned administrator for the council, but everyone knew that he was being groomed to take over as Chancellor one day. Elections be damned, they would make sure that Wells was always the most qualified candidate.

Hell, she’d even take Wells’ careful lack of emotion over her mother’s crushing disappointment. She sat at the dinner table, playing with the now cold casserole. “I’m a doctor. I wanted to help people, mom. That’s all.”

Abby sighed and slumped down into her own chair. “I know you did, baby, but this was not the way to do it. Don’t you understand how fragile the balance is right now? Everything has to be done very carefully so that the whole Ark doesn’t just come flying apart at the seams. You need to work within the system in order to maintain it.”

“The system is broken.” Her father finally spoke up. He’d been silent ever since they arrived back at their apartments. “You can try to keep putting bandaids on top of the fractures, but your daughter sees the truth where you won’t.” Abby and Clarke both turned to Jake, his quiet voice more frightening than her mother’s obvious frustration. “The Ark is dying. It is diseased. It is going to destroy itself from within because no one wants to fix what’s wrong.”

“What are you saying, Jake, is there something wrong with the infrastructure? The air? You’re always trying to fix those air scrubbers.”

“No. That’s fine. We can keep on top the mechanics until the Earth is safe and we can return, it’s the people. The pressure has reached unbearable levels and we are going to blow.”

Abby put her hand to her chest in dismay, whether at the idea that the Ark was dying or that Jake would say such a thing, Clarke wasn’t sure. “You’re talking rebellion!”

“I’m talking ultimate destruction of all that’s left of humanity. We are going to self destruct up here in the Ark, because the parts are no longer working together. If this were a simple mechanical trouble, I’d take the thing apart and oil up the squeaking gears and replace the faulty elements and get it running again. But I can’t engineer us out of this. It’s a human problem.”

“You can’t know that, Jake.”

“I know how systems work, Abby. And I know when they are broken. So does your daughter.”

Clarke’s parents turned to her. But she was only half paying attention to them. All of a sudden, she felt chilled. Her sweat turned cold. The little things she had seen in her time down on Factory, snatches of conversation heard in passing, the attitudes of disdain on Alpha and GoSci. Lack of resources for some and abundance for others. Lies. Theft. The suspicious way people looked at her, on both sides of the divide. Her father was right. 

Clarke pushed back from the table. “I have to go…” she said.

“I suppose you’re going to that boy on Factory.”

“He’s not a boy, mom. He’s a man. And he’s my friend.”

“Clarke,” Abby said, rolling her eyes. “Please don’t think we’re naive. We know you go off hiding to who knows where with him whenever you can. I know you like to find lovers that you think will shock me, but really, Clarke? He has a second. A man like that…”

“He’s actually a good man, Abby.” Jake broke in. “He has provided for and protected his sister from the time he was six. He’s a guard now. Respectable.”

“Well,” she said unwillingly, “I can respect a man who struggles through difficult circumstances, but really, Clarke, the kind of family who would have a second, that’s the lowest kind of intelligence and selfishness at work. What must his genetics be like?”

“Mom!” Clarke couldn’t help but be disgusted. She knew her mother was a caring person, always wanting to help people in pain, but she couldn’t bear this Alpha prejudice. She had heard it her whole life, from everyone she knew, and it was just so much worse coming from her mother. And it felt, somehow, more personal.

Jake sighed. “Would it help you to know that Bellamy Blake has superb genetics?”

Abby turned to her husband. “Just how long have you known about this boyfriend, Jake?”

“As long as you have. But I am familiar with the Blakes. The sister is a fine seamstress, and I have gotten some special things from her. That scarf you love so much? Hers.” Abby’s lips formed an “o” of surprise. “And when he was getting his placements, they were trying to keep him out of the guard, despite his test scores, all stellar. Because of his sister. I pulled some strings.”

Abby shook her head in wonder. “You’re such a good man, Jake Griffin.”

“Bellamy Blake is a good man, too. If his scores had been better in maths and tech I would have recruited him into Engineering, but he didn’t belong with me. I tried to get him into the Gov program, but apparently having a brilliant boy from a second family was too much of a scandal. I figured he could climb up through the ranks of the guard to become a council member if he was as good as I thought he was. It worked for Kane.”

“Kane is not from a second family,” Abby defended their co-council member, and stopped when she saw the look he gave her. “But I see your point. Excellence should be rewarded, despite the shame of a parent’s poor choices in life. It’s just,” she turned back to Clarke, “I wish you wouldn’t choose such a hard path in life.”

“The Ark has no laws dictating where I can spend my free time or with whom. We do have that freedom. Thank goodness.”

“I know that, Clarke. But why couldn’t you be with Wells? You used to be so close. You know he’s a good man too.”

“Mom, you can’t tell me who to be in love with.”

Abby’s eyebrows rose up in surprise. “I thought you were just friends. Now you’re in love with this Bellamy Blake?”

Clarke blinked at her mother. She could scarcely catch her breath. 

Her mother stared back, this time with sympathy. “Did you not know?”

The cold sweat was back. Along with a twisted knot in the pit of her stomach. “I have to go,” she said. Not really sure what to do with herself. She didn’t wait for them to reply. She turned around and left the apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of have to apologize for making Abby into a prejudiced fool. I don't actually think Abby is a bad woman. I think she is a loving mother who is trying to do the right thing and is having a hard time thinking of her child as an adult... none of these are bad qualities. She makes bad choices sometimes, as everyone in The 100 does, and she has to deal with the sometimes deadly repercussions of those choices. 
> 
> Abby is not a hateful person in this fic, but she does hold the prejudices of her society. She wants to help the less fortunate and wants to work within a system that she thinks works, although it can work better. Jake thinks in more practical terms as an engineer, about the function of things, and the capabilities of people, not their social standing, so he is able to see past the prejudices. He just doesn't think like they do. It's what makes him a good engineer. 
> 
> IRL, prejudices are hard to shake. It's easy to tell your daughter that you don't want her to choose such a hard path, that they should follow the rules that have always been there. I just want to explore the ideas of prejudice with a character who means well, and I don't want to turn her into a villain.


	7. Part and Parcel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Still reeling from the double revelation that the Ark is dying and she is head over heels in love with Bellamy, she makes some sudden decisions.

Clarke wandered the Ark, not really knowing where to go. The halls were full of their normal late shift traffic, with people wandering around, heading to meals or rec activities, using their gym time. She let herself flow with the traffic, wherever it might lead her. That’s how she found herself in Agro Station, at a puppet show for children. She tucked herself in the back of the audience, sitting on a bench up against the wall, and ignored the performance entirely. The children’s squeals at the front of the rec center made it easy. 

She wanted to go right to Bellamy. The urge was so strong it scared her. She was in love with him and she hadn’t even noticed it happening. She was scared and upset and her whole world had just turned upside down and all she wanted was to be in his arms.

This was not supposed to happen. She was supposed to be angry at her mother and start her clinic and help people and maybe have some adventure and meet someone to have fun with. This was beyond fun. Her first thought when she woke up in the morning was of Bellamy, and the last thought at night, especially when she couldn’t be with him. And there were too many nights she couldn’t be with him. 

With Bellamy she had discovered a world that she hadn’t even know was there, and it wasn’t about him being from a second family, or from Factory Station. It wasn’t about slumming it or class the way they all wanted it to be, because that would be easier to explain than what it was. 

With Bellamy, she had found someplace that she belonged. He had brought her a family. The very thought made her feel guilty. She knew, especially now, that the family she had was more than most people on the Ark ever had. She knew that she was lucky to have her father and mother, even Wells and his father. She was lucky to have come from them, so then how was it she never felt as if she belonged anywhere until she’d found Bellamy and their little band of delinquents?

With Bellamy she felt at home. She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. Well, fuck. 

The world was dying and she was in love, and somehow they felt part and parcel.

This was terrible, because she was pretty much sure that Bellamy did not feel the same as she did. They had an undeniable attraction, and the sex was fantastic, but she knew that part of the appeal was sneaking around, finding hidden corners where they could be alone, being with someone who was “a princess.” She’d never once taken him to her room, with her family, and there had seemed to be plenty of good reasons for that, since her activities down on Factory were clandestine. But he’d never taken her to his room, either, even though his only family knew about her, had in fact been the one to invite her to meet the delinquents. And now she was wondering why he’d kept her away from his daily life, why he’d kept their relationship a secret from everyone on Factory. 

To be honest, they tried to keep it quiet around the delinquents, too, sneaking away when no one was looking, stealing kisses when their heads were turned, hands groping parts under tables, where no one could see. She was sure they had their suspicions about Bellamy and their princess, but he had never made a claim on her, and she had never made a claim on him. Fuck again. 

They were just friends who fucked in broom closets and behind hydroponic fields and the world was ending.

She felt a hand slide into hers, and her eyes flew open.

“I was worried about you,” he said, sitting next to her on the bench. He stared ahead at the puppet show. His words were quiet. Of course they were.They were in public. Even if they weren’t on Factory or Alpha or anywhere they had ties, everyone knew who Clarke was. Anyone could be watching her. Anyone could see her with the man from the second family. She could feel eyes upon her right this instant.

She relished his hand in hers, nevertheless. “How did you find me?” she said, turning to look at the puppet show, also, although she really couldn’t make sense of the show. A dragon. A rocket. A young boy.

“Octavia had her network looking out for you.”

The seconds. They knew how to sneak. They knew how to watch. And they knew how to travel the stations without being seen. Clarke nodded. Of course. 

“Are you okay?” His voice sounded tense, frightened.

She laughed quietly. It was not a funny part of the puppet show, so she tucked the laugh into her shoulder and stole a glimpse of Bellamy. His jaw was clenched the way it did when he was anxious.

“They gave me a promotion.”

He gave up the facade that he was here for the puppet show and his head whipped around towards her. “What?!”

She nodded and raised both eyebrows. “Yes. My ‘punishment’ for the illicit/illegal black-market unsanctioned clinic was to be reassigned to medical research, allowing me no contact with patients and giving me a nice, fat raise in credits.”

He gaped at her in astonishment before turning back to the puppets. The kids broke out into delighted laughter. It was a funny part of the puppet show. 

“Life really is different for you, isn’t it, Clarke?”

Clarke pursed her lips. “Apparently. I should have been stripped of my duties or at least demoted. I should be in restraints. I should be in the skybox right now.”

“Don’t wish for that.” He pulled her hand into his lap and grasped it with both of his. “I was worried. I knew you weren’t in the skybox. I checked in all the guard records for disciplinary actions. And it was like you had just disappeared. There was the order to shut down your clinic and take you into custody and then, it was like you just disappeared. I didn’t know what they had done to you.”

She puzzled for a moment. Did people from Factory just disappear like that? Floating was official, there were always records. They announced skybox sentences on the ark wide channel. These were official occurrences, the same way marriages and births were. They were public events on Ark Station. Did other things happen behind the official statements? It frightened her to think so. It frightened her that she thought it was possible. That he or Octavia or any of her friends could just disappear.

“I didn’t know where to go. I couldn’t stay in my apartment with my parents. I couldn’t stay on Alpha with all those…. I just needed to get away.”

“Why didn’t you come to me?” Bellamy asked. 

Clarke’s heart stuttered in her chest. She stared carefully off at the puppet show, seeing none of it. It took her a while before she could say something that wouldn’t make things worse. “I didn’t want to lead anyone to you and Octavia. I mean, my mother knows about you. They know— they think we’re—“ She couldn’t say the words. She couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t break her heart in two, that wouldn’t be either too much or too little.

He leaned a little closer to her.

She shook her head, trying to clear it of her ridiculous, over blown emotions. “I am apparently immune to repercussions, but you and Octavia are not. I didn’t want any punishment to fall upon you, so I thought it best if I stayed away. And I don’t think they know about… our friends… so I couldn’t go there.” She considered it for a while. “I think I’m being watched now.” She was certain she was. 

She wasn’t the only person in this puppet show decidedly not watching the puppets. She remembered her father’s words about the Ark, and how it was going to blow, about how the parts were no longer working together. Someone had reported her clinic to the authorities. Someone had intended to cause her… if not harm, then trouble. Did she have enemies?

“Come with me,” he said

God she wanted to, but she shook her head. The dragon was chasing the rocket now. She had no idea why, but the kids watching the puppet show were loving it. Squealing and cheering. Her heart was breaking into pieces. “I don’t think I should see you anymore.”

He dropped her hand. 

The rocket turned around and started chasing the dragon. The children screamed louder. Some of them jumped up and down in their seats. 

“It’s too dangerous,” she said. The words were like stones falling from her mouth. Cold, dead stones. The world was ending. “I think it’s best if I just go.” 

She stood up and turned to leave, not looking back because she couldn’t. It was better. She was a danger to him, to her sister, to the delinquents. The world was ending. Her heart was raw and weeping, but at least they would be safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On the show, Clarke and Bellamy have a relationship built on trust and cooperation, despite what many of us feel to be a strong sexual chemistry between them. 
> 
> In this AU, they are older when they meet, and not in a perilous, life threatening situation, and the chemistry takes over. What happens when passion comes before the trust? Hmmm. Methinks trouble. 
> 
> Actually, I didn't meant to have them break up here. The characters' insecurity decided for them. 
> 
> I don't think it will stick.


	8. Heir

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke goes to Wells to get a new housing assignment. Don't call it running away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay Wells. I have nothing else to say.

“No, Clarke.” Wells was saying, with a slow shake of his head. “Someone else was assigned Mrs Caulfield’s apartments. I’m sorry. I don’t have any residences left on Alpha for you. But, is this really what you want to do? I know you’re mad at your parents, and I’d do anything to make the loss of your clinic up to you, but…this seems awfully sudden.”

“It is sudden, Wells. Everything’s changed. I see everything differently. I feel…” she didn’t know how she felt. And she didn’t know if she could until she could be by herself, alone, to make peace with what she had learned today. She had come searching Wells out, even after his stony face in the council chambers, because she trusted him. Even though they had grown apart and gone down different paths, they were still a team. She had found him in his old familiar rooms, in his father’s apartment. He stayed, even though he had a nice credit balance from his job, since, as his father’s administrator, it was easier to live in the same place. “I am not my mother’s daughter, anymore. I can’t stand to be in the same rooms. We’re too different.”

Wells laughed loud and long. He stopped when he saw her face. “Oh. I’m sorry. You meant that. You think you’re not like your mother.”

Clarke scowled at him. She didn’t need this from him.

Her scowls never scared Wells, though. “You’re like your mother, times two. With your father’s brains thrown in to up the ante. You always think you’re right. You always think you have the answer.”

“Are you going to help me or not,” Clarke continued to scowl. Adding crossed arms for good measure.

“The problem is,” he sighed, “that you often are right.” Wells picked up his tablet and began scrolling through it, lightly, as if he were ignoring her. But Clarke knew better. Wells was efficient. He didn’t make a fuss when things had to be done, he just did them. “It’s funny, if you’re like your mother times two plus your dad’s brains, I’m like my dad plus you.”

Clarke snorted. Her arms still crossed but the scowl slipping away in confusion. “No you’re not. There’s no me. You’re totally like your dad. All duty, all the time. I’ve never seen so much drive.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I have that, but I also have your questions. Every time I make a decision, ‘what would Clarke think?’ runs through my head. And then I have to consider all the options.”

“Well, yeah. You should be doing that, anyway.”

“You always see the gray areas. You always pay close attention to the losses, the things we might give up when we make our choices.”

Clarke pressed her lips together. She was thinking of nothing but what she was giving up today.

“It means I’m just a weak copy of my dad. I can’t ever act with his decisiveness.”

“You’ll get there, Wells. I mean, you have years to go before you ever have to don that chancellor’s pin.”

He shot a doubtful look at her, then made one final tap on his tablet. “There’s nothing on Alpha that I can get you into immediately,” he said. “But if you don’t mind moving down a station, I can get you a pretty sweet apartment on the far side of GoSci. Obviously it would be smaller than what you’d get on Alpha, but this one’s got a great view facing the atrium, and there’s an alcove you can use for an office.”

“GoSci?” she repeated, both excited and reluctant. GoSci was closer to Agro. 

“Yeah. This was an unexpected vacancy, so there’s no waiting list for the residence.” He read through the files on his tablet and grimaced. “Suicide by earth. No family left behind.” His eyebrows drew together. “Huh.”

“What?”

“He was in medical research.” His face wrinkled in indecision for just one moment. “In your new position.” He looked at her, widened his eyes and then turned back to the tablet, making a few quick notes. “There,” he said. His voice firm. “Now you have inherited not just his position, but his possessions.”

“I don’t want his stuff, Wells. That’s creepy! It should go back to the community to be redistributed.”

“Yeah, but he had his office there, and all his notes and work and equipment, and you’ll be taking over his job, so it would actually be helpful if you could just continue on with his research, don’t you think? This way we can avoid all the red tape of taking it back through the research facility. Right? Besides, you want to move right away, right? You don’t have what you need to start an apartment.”

“But what about his clothes? His personal effects? I don’t want that.”

He shrugged. “Give it to your boyfriend. He’s got a second sibling. I’m sure he could use the things, or trade them in if he can’t.”

She sat back on Well’s chair, not really wanting to talk about boyfriends that she didn’t have anymore. If she ever had him at all. But it was true that Octavia still needed her help, and she’d just lost her job at the clinic that was no more. Her stomach clenched at the thought that Bellamy might have to go back to throwing fights, or worse, trading his body for rations. 

“Ok.” She said. “I’ll do it. I’ll take it. I’ll take it all.” She blinked at him and found herself breathing heavily. Her thoughts swirled so strongly through her head.

He finished tapping at his tablet, swiped it shut and looked at her. “It’s done. You now reside in GoSci B-426. Really all you will need are your clothes. It’s move in ready. You’ll probably want to requisition some cleaning supplies and boxes to move things out to your boyfriend.”

She wished he’d stop calling Bellamy her boyfriend. But she didn’t really want to admit that he wasn’t hers. Her heart would simply not catch up with her brain. He felt like hers. So she changed the subject. “When did you become this person who breaks rules so easily.”

He laid his tablet down on his desk and shrugged. “I’m not breaking the rules. As administrator of the chancellor it is within my powers to assign housing to essential personnel, which you are. It is also within my powers to assign an heir where there is none. You’re taking over his research, and his research was his life. Therefore, I declare you to be his heir. It’s convenient.”

“You are very practical,” she said. “It’s kind of scary.”

“Maybe also I like the idea of using my power and redistributing resources where they will do the most good.”

“Giving it to me won’t do the most good.”

“That’s not true. You will take what you need to further his research…. Which by the way Clarke, is an extremely important project for the future wellbeing of the entire Ark Station and future of humanity.”

“You’re scaring me, Wells,” she said, half joking. Still uncomfortable with the way her whole day had been going.

“Well it is. Your mother may have wanted you to follow her as a surgeon and clinician, but this project fully needs someone with your abilities. You can do good work with it and you will take only what you need from his possessions in order to do your work. I know you.”

“Did you have something to do with getting me this position, Wells?”

He shrugged. “Not only will you do good work with his research, but you will make sure his resources are distributed directly to those who most need them. That won’t happen if they go back to redistribution, and you know it. At least I can do some good with my pencil pushing public servant job, by helping you to do good for the people of the Ark.”

“I think that someday you will make an excellent chancellor, Wells. Maybe exactly the kind of chancellor that we need. Maybe better than your father.”

Wells rubbed his neck and shook his head, uncomfortable. “No. Not me.”

She didn’t push. But she did have to ask a question that had been bothering her. Maybe he would know. “You know, Wells, it’s been bugging me.”

“What?”

“Who reported my clinic. I know it wasn’t you, you knew months ago. And as much as I like blaming my mom for everything that goes wrong in my life, she did too, and I carried on with her disapproval for months. So it wasn’t her. I don’t think it was anyone from Factory. I hope. I thought they really appreciated my—“

“It was Diana Sydney.”

Clarke goggled. “The council member?”

He nodded.

“The ex chancellor?”

He nodded again.

“What possible reason would she have for shutting down my clinic. My patients were her constituents. She always promised to get them better health care why would she…” Clarke’s words trailed away in confusion. It didn’t make sense. Her brain spun around in circles. Diana Sydney was an advocate for the lower stations, always speaking about fair treatment and equality. It had been some of her speeches that had actually gotten Clarke to thinking about how she would like to help the people of the Ark. She even advocated for the seconds, and that was an extremely unpopular position. It got her thinking.

“Wells, can you check what the records say about Octavia Blake? I’m worried about her.”

He didn’t even reach for his tablet, just shook his head. “She’s not in the system. No second is in the system. I have nothing on her. She stays out of trouble, so there’s no disciplinary action, which is good because seconds are floated at about five times the rate of the general population. Oh, and she has a functional birth control implant. ”

“I knew that. I’m her doctor.” 

“Discipline and implants. Those are the only times that the Ark bothers with seconds.”

“That seems like a very bad plan.”

Wells simply pressed his lips together, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. “I can however check up on Bellamy Blake, if it would help.”

“No,” she said. Clenching her fists and getting up with the old familiar chair in Wells’ old familiar room. “No, don’t do that. You’ve done enough for me. I’m going to start feeling that I am taking advantage of our old friendship.”

He nodded but said, “You aren’t taking advantage of me. It might not seem like it lately, and we might be on different paths right now, but we’re still a team. Remember that, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Your key card is already activated to GoSci B-426. You can move in right now, but do me a favor.”

“What?”

“Make sure you tell your mom and dad you are leaving. Don’t just run off without saying anything to anyone, making some sort of decision all on your own and removing yourself from their lives.”

“I don’t do that.”

He simply tilted his head at her. She squirmed under his gaze. 

“Okay. I will tell my mom and dad where I’m going.” She very carefully did not say that she would tell anyone else where she was going. She hugged Wells tightly and whispered, “thanks,” and then was on her way.


	9. Trust Going On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Octavia comes to get Clarke, because she's having none of it. Wells helps her out.

“Clarke!” came the voice through the door, along with a polite knock. She heard it, but she was lost in her work.

For three weeks she had done nothing but go to work in GoSci, learn her new routine, become familiar with the research, and then come home to her new apartment to go through Dr. Gelfland’s notes. Her job was, officially, to study the results of the genetic engineering that had been activated Ark-wide generations ago. She was to evaluate the resistance to solar radiation in the general population. It was good news. Mutations were unheard of, and incidences of cancer were down to almost nil. It seemed as if the Ark had nearly cured cancer while busy trying to keep humanity alive in space without a protective atmosphere.

But the real surprise was the work that Dr. Gelfland had done at home. Even though he was a medical doctor, his personal work had turned to planet earth. He had spent six years analyzing the radiation levels of the planet, and calculating the effect the nuclear radiation would have had on pre cataclysm humans which was within the bounds of his official assignment. But then he decided to analyze the information they had about the current radiation levels of the planet and comparing that with the levels of radiation resistance among the Ark residents.

His analysis was that the humans of the Ark could survive on Earth with no ill effects from the environmental radiation. 

He hadn’t committed suicide by earth, Clarke decided. He had run away to live on earth. 

“Clarke!” came again. The door shook with an insistent pounding.

Clarke put her tablet down and got up from her desk. “Hold on a minute, Wells. Calm down. I’m coming,” she called.

She went to the door and opened it. Wells stood there. 

"Sorry," he said. He was pushed to the side and Octavia came rushing into the room. Clarke took a step back.

“No,” Octavia said, poking a finger into Clarke’s shoulder. “No.”

“Octavia! What? I’m glad to see you.” Clarke said surprised. “What are you doing here?”

Wells entered behind her and closed the door softly. “I’m sorry Clarke. She came to me looking for you and refused to leave until I took her to you. I didn’t want her to get into trouble.”

Clarke shot him an annoyed look, but said, “It’s okay. I know how… insistent she can be.”

Octavia poked another finger into Clarke’s shoulder, pushing her back farther into the apartment. “No,” she said again. “You are not allowed to just disappear on us. I don’t know what happened between you and my brother since he won’t talk about you, at all, like, at ALL, but we need you to come back.”

Clarke shook her head. “Nothing happened between us, Octavia. Maybe it’s just over. The clinic is over. My time down on factory is over…” Her voice faded out. “It wasn’t… I was just slumming, just like Bellamy always said.” The last was barely audible. It was the first time she had said his name out loud in three weeks. She cleared her throat and stepped further into the apartment. “Can I get you something to drink? I have water or iced tea.”

“Iced tea?” Octavia said, her voice suspicious. “Fancy. I’ll have some of that.” 

Clarke went into the small kitchen and took out some glasses. “Wells? Iced tea?” 

“I should just go,” he said. “I brought her here like I promised.“

“No, Wells, you should stay.” Octavia said, like a challenge, and then she stalked towards Clarke.

Clarke placed the glass of iced tea on the counter in front of Octavia like a shield between them. “You’re lying, Clarke. Something happened.”

“No. I got reassigned. I’ve been busy. It’s better this way. I will stay in GoSci doing my work, and you will do fine in Factory and no one will bother you. You… got the boxes I sent?”

“Yeah, I got them. Bellamy wanted to float them.”

Clarke gasped. “Please tell me you didn’t throw them out. There were valuable things in there…the books alone!”

Octavia made a face. “Of course not. I sold them on the exchange. Got some good prices, too. I kept the books. He didn’t want me to accept charity from you, but I told him they were my severance package from my boss when I lost my job and he had no right to toss them just because they were from his ex-girlfriend.”

Clarke stared at her hands on the counter. “I was never his girlfriend,” she whispered.

Octavia looked surprised at that. She took a step back and glanced at Wells. He stood there, with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyebrows half way up his forehead. 

“Oh,” Octavia said. “I see.” She smiled then, like she had a secret. “I guess I was mistaken then.” She picked up her glass finally and took a sip. “Interesting. It’s refreshing. Hides the recycled taste of the water. It’s almost like we’re not drinking generations of filtered pee.”

Wells choked on his tea. Octavia smacked him on his back a few times. “Careful there, good-looking,” she said, her smile turned into a smirk. 

She looked around Clarke’s apartment then. “Nice place. Is it better than your folks’?” 

“It’s smaller,” she said, and then felt like an idiot. It was easily four times the size of Octavia’s apartment. Octavia just nodded. “It’s nice to be on my own,” she added, quietly.

“Yeah,” Octavia said and downed the last of her iced tea. “Sometimes you need to hide. I get that.”

“What?” Clarke said and shook her head tightly. “I’m not hiding. I’m just busy.”

Octavia shot Wells a glance and they shared the same ‘not buying it’ expression. 

“Yeah, I may be a second, but I’m not stupid. It’s called ‘fight or flight’ response, and you, my friend, are flying. But I’m not letting you run and hide anymore.”

Wells finished his tea and put it back down on the counter. “Me either,” he said. “Time to come back to the world, Clarke.”

Clarke looked back and forth between the two of them. “Stop it. Stop ganging up on me. When did you two become a gang?”

They looked at each other again. “About three minutes ago,” Octavia said. “He loves you. And I love you. And that makes us on the same team. Your team.”

“Who ARE you?” Wells said, looking at the slight girl, flabbergasted. 

“I’m Octavia Blake, second.” Her grin turned feral. “And your rules don’t apply to me.” She wrinkled her nose at him. “Exciting isn’t it?” Wells just blinked. 

“Okay,” Clarke conceded. “I’m hiding. I’ll admit it. I got scared.”

“Of what?” Octavia prompted.

“Of what could happen to you! I can’t— You almost—What if—“ Clarke stuttered and couldn’t even finish a sentence.

“I’ve lived with those what ifs my whole life, Clarke. Nothing’s changed for me.”

“It changed for me.” Clarke said. It scared her to have Octavia so vulnerable, then an idea came to her. “Come live with me. I have the room. You can see. I’ll move the office into my bedroom and you can have the alcove all to yourself. I still need an assistant. I will hire you and include room and board.” The idea excited her. It solved one of the problems that had been weighing on her.

“What about Bellamy?” Octavia said. 

Clarke’s heart sunk again. She was trying not to think about him. Not to talk about him. It was hard to do that with his little sister. “It will be easier for him if he doesn’t have to protect you all the time, he won’t have to—“ Clarke really didn’t like how fragile her voice sounded.

Octavia put her hand on Clarke’s arm. “My brother is a big boy, Clarke. He can take care of himself. And he can take care of me, too.”

“I want to help,” she said in a voice that was barely audible.

“Okay then. Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

Octavia looked at her like she was crazy. “It’s Moonshine Monday. I came here to get you, Clarke.”

“Octavia!” Clarke gasped and shot her eyes at Wells. He wasn’t supposed to know. They could all be skyboxed for illegal moonshine.

Octavia chuckled and reached out to grab Wells’ arm too. “He’s coming with us.”

“He’s not vetted, Octavia. He’s the chancellor’s son, his assistant.”

Octavia turned to Wells and put both of her hands on his face, pulling his gaze down to meet hers. “I trust Clarke,” she said, “And Clarke trusts you. Do you trust me? Can I trust you?”

Clarke watched as her bright blue eyes trapped his deep brown ones. “Yes,” he said. “I trust you. You can trust me.”

“Good. Let’s go then.” She let go of Wells’ face, but held onto his arm, and reached out for Clarke’s too, as if she didn’t want either of them to get away.

“Wait. That’s it? That’s all you need?” It didn’t make sense for her to be so trusting. She knew how dangerous things could get.

Octavia turned to Clarke. “Listen to me, Clarke. I told you. I watch people. I know. Now don’t worry about Wells. Let’s head to the hydroponics lab.” Clarke pulled on Octavia’s arm to slow her down.

“Stop stalling, Clarke. We’re going.”

“We can’t walk through the halls together, Octavia. Me and Wells and you all together are definitely going to draw attention. I’m being watched. It’s dangerous for you. And you certainly can’t be linked with the chancellor’s son.”

Octavia snorted. “Unbelievable. Is she always like this?”

“No,” Wells said. “She usually is the first one to jump into danger.”

“Am not.” Wells crooked an eyebrow at her.

“Listen, Clarke. I know what I’m about. Trust me.”

“Sure is a lot of trust going on around here,” Clarke said, disgruntled.

“Yes, there is.” 

Octavia had Wells go out and check the walkway before they left together. One of the main draws of GoSci housing was that the units were all facing the atrium, with windows that opened out onto the balcony walkways. The atrium stretched up six levels, with an observatory near the glassed in ceiling and oxygenating plants that trailed down along the open railings of the levels. The lower floor was an airy exchange market and a gathering place for GoSci. It was quite popular, especially during rec hours, when there was an earth view through the atrium ceiling, the soft reflected light of the planet gave the atrium a more organic feeling. The hum of people enjoying their off hours rose up to them on the fourth level balcony.

Octavia grinned at them, and said, “Great location.” Clarke might have thought she was referring to the atrium view, but instead, she took them to the end of the balcony, only one door down, and popped open a grate. “Access vent,” she said, and waved them both through. “It leads straight to Agro.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, look at that. O and Wells are flirting. I never think of Octavia being with anyone but Lincoln, but this is five years later, she's been out and about on the Ark her whole life. I wouldn't expect her to be innocent and not interested in guys... she's always been interested in guys. Particularly hunky, protective guys with big biceps. That kind of fits Wells. He's also willing to be led by a spunky girl. She likes that, too.


	10. Stating The Obvious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke is back with the Delinquents, thanks to Octavia's meddling. Bellamy scowls.

The access tunnel was dark, lit only by the occasional vent. Octavia put a finger to lips to silence them, even if they could barely see her. Most panels were too small to allow access, but Clarke could hear people out there. Living their lives. Doing everything you’d expect them to do when they didn’t think someone was listening. In a surprisingly short time, the tunnel opened up into a small space. Light filtered in from a high, wide vent. 

“What is this?” Wells whispered, stopping at a piece of equipment with hoses running off of it.

Just then, a hatch opened up and Monty stuck his head through. “Octavia!” he said, surprised. Then he saw Clarke and ran forward to hug her. “We missed you. Bellamy has been such a dick since you’ve been gone. Who is…” his eyes widened. “Wells Jaha?” He looked back and forth between Octavia and Clarke. “Octavia, what did you do?”

“Oh stop. I know what I’m about.”

“I think you’re about to get in big trouble when your brother finds out what you did.”

Octavia made a face and turned back to Wells. “Grab that jug, Wells. Use those muscles for something helpful and bring it in for me.” She turned Monty around physically and pushed him back out through the hatch.

“Wait, Octavia,” Clarke stopped, her heart pounding so hard she was surprised it wasn’t echoing through the corridors. “Maybe we should just go home. This is going to cause problems. I don’t want to—“

“Too late now. I told you. I came to get you. We want you back. We need you.”

Octavia went through the hatch and pulled Clarke through after her. They stepped into the Hydroponic lab, into a room full of green and light and their friends, gathered around the hatch.

Clarke’s eyes were immediately drawn to Bellamy, his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face. He glared at her and didn’t even look when Wells came through the hatch behind her.

No one spoke. No one moved. Finally Raven came up and wrapped a hand around Clarke’s wrist and dragged her out of the range of fire of Bellamy’s glare. It didn’t work. The glare followed her, but she could ignore it as Raven hugged her heartily. “I missed you so much. You’re not allowed to leave again.”

“Do you want to explain yourself, Octavia?” Bellamy growled, still glaring at Clarke. She turned to Raven. Jasper grabbed her from behind and hugged her, too. 

“Raven’s right. You’re not allowed to leave again. Nothing was the same without you.”

“Jasper, I was only hanging out with you guys for a couple of months.”

“But you complete us,” he said, and squashed her again in his arms.

“O,” Bellamy warned. Clarke assumed he was still glaring at her, but she didn’t want to look up to see. She hid in the arms of her friends. She really was glad to see them again.

“I brought Clarke home. She belongs with us,” Octavia said, her voice as growly as her brothers. “And you don’t get to say I can’t.”

“The hell I don’t.”

Without meaning to, Clarke found herself extricating herself from her friend’s arms and getting right into Bellamy’s face. “Leave her alone, Bellamy. You’re mad at me, don’t take it out on her.”

His jaw was as tight as stone and he stared at her, tried to stare her down. She narrowed her eyes and gave it right back to him. “Don’t tell me how I feel and don’t tell me what to do, Princess. She brought the enemy.”

“I’m not the enemy,” Wells said. Clarke grimaced because she knew Bellamy would think of Wells as someone he could hit. It would make him feel better, to get out his anger, especially on someone big enough to take it. But she knew Wells was just as capable. She did not want them to fight. It made her heart hurt to think of them pounding on each other.

When Bellamy moved to brush her aside and head for Wells, Clarke stepped back into his path and pressed both palms to his chest, holding him back. “Wells is not the enemy.” She could feel his heart racing beneath her hands. Feel the heat of his body and his muscles, hard and tense. 

“You’re the enemy, too,” he said between clenched teeth. 

Her eyes fluttered with his words and she dropped her hands. She stepped back, feeling as if he had physically struck her. “I’m not your enemy, Bell,” she said, fighting the tears. Oh the tears made her angry. She wouldn’t let him know how much his words hurt. She dropped her head and turned away.

“Float you, Bellamy,” Raven said, putting an arm around Clarke’s shoulders and steering her to the lab table. Monty poured her a glass of moonshine. “You’ve been such a dick since she left.”

“She’s the one who left. Done with her slumming. Back to where she belongs, with her Prince Jaha.”

“You are such an idiot, Bell.” Octavia said, disgusted.

“Don’t let me get started on you, O. You put us all at risk, bringing them here. Nothing will happen to them, we’ve all seen it, but you? Me? The rest of us? Half of us have already been in the skybox, and you know what happens to recidivists. And what happens to seconds who commit crimes? Do you want to be responsible for having your friends floated because you wanted to let Clarke bring her boyfriend here.”

Octavia gaped at him, and then she started laughing.

“Woah,” Wells said. “I’m not going to report anyone. And I’m not Clarke’s boyfriend.”

“You were.”

“But I’m not anymore.”

“Well, then I guess we have something in common.”

She didn’t know if it was the moonshine that gave her courage or if it was hearing him say in front of everyone that he had been her boyfriend, when she never thought he’d ever thought of her in that way. She pushed up off the stool and came up to him again, tears gone.

“Bellamy,” she said, without anger this time. “Bell.” She made him look at her. “I’m not your enemy. You know it. But I have enemies. Someone reported me. Someone’s been watching me. I don’t know what game they are playing, but I’m a target. I couldn’t—“ she wasn’t going to say it, but then she decided why not, she had nothing left to lose. “I couldn’t risk them targeting you, too. I couldn’t risk you.”’

“What do you mean?” He said, his eyebrows drawing together, his eyes not leaving hers. His hands came up to grip her arms and it felt as if he was holding on, trying to keep from flying away.

She stared up at him, unable to speak. 

“She means she loves you, you dumb jackass,” Murphy slurred from his corner of the lab table. Charlotte knocked him on his shoulder and Raven yelled, “Murphy!” from across the room.

“What?” he gaped at them. “We all know it. And he loves her. They weren’t being subtle. Did they think they were being subtle?” He rolled his eyes. “Come on. Get over it already. Kiss and make up. Welcome home princess. Stop being a dick, Bellamy.” 

Miller came up to Murphy and pushed him off his stool. “Come on man, let’s go take a walk. You’re drunk.”

“What are you gonna do, guardsman Miller? Arrest me for stating the obvious?”

“Just shut up, Murphy.” He dragged him off.

There was the silence again. Bellamy was still holding onto her arms, but it didn’t feel as tight, as desperate.

“Can we talk?” He said. The anger was gone from his voice. 

Clarke nodded. “Please.”

“Privacy,” Wick stage whispered, and pointed behind his hand at the hydroponic soybean fields. “Don’t tell Jasper.”

Jasper made a sour face and took a drink of moonshine. “Just don’t hurt my babies.” He said. “And someone get Jaha a drink. We have to get him addicted to our juice so he doesn’t go squealing to daddy.”

“I’m not going to—“

“I know, I’m messing with you. Thanks for taking care of our princess while she was away from us.”

Monty handed Wells a cup.

“And thanks for taking care of my best friend when she thought no one loved her. Apparently she’s found the people who do.”

Jasper nodded to Wells and Wells nodded back. They both drank.

Everyone turned to their moonshine, leaving Clarke and Bellamy what privacy they could.

She opened her mouth to speak and he shook his head, letting his hand slide down her arm to take her hand and draw her back through the soy bean plants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've finally figured it out. I'm cheating on my nanowrimo novel with this fic. Here I am all, "I love you Novel, you're my family," and then I turn around and I'm like, "But Fic, I love you. I'm IN LOVE with you." 
> 
> I'm freaking Finn Collins.


	11. Something Different, Something More

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things that have been left unsaid are said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just going to leave this here and walk away because it was painful to write and took forever due to my own uncertainty. So it is what it is. I refuse to apologize for my writing (and I don't think anyone should ever apologize for their stories.)

Behind the soybean plants, they found themselves in a green shaded pocket, surrounded on all sides by leaves and beans. 

“It’s cool in here. Inside the plants. I missed it,” Clarke said and waved her free hand vaguely about, avoiding. “It’s like we’re in a forest, on Earth almost.” She chuckled nervously. “You know, except for the tile, and metal supports and full spectrum lights and…”

“Clarke,” Bellamy said. “Look at me.”

She dragged her eyes away from the plants around her, and back to him. He had that little crease between his eyebrows that he got when he was worried. His hair was in curls on his forehead and her fingers itched to brush it back.

“Clarke, is it true?”

Clarke shrugged, pretending. “Is what true?” Her eyes fell to the skin at the opening of his shirt. She couldn’t look him in his eyes. She stifled the urge to run her tongue along his clavicle.

“Do you love me, Clarke.”

She turned her head back out to the so very green of the plants they were surrounded by.

He put his hand to her jaw and turned her head back to look at him. “Clarke.”

His eyes were so warm, so open. She wanted to cry. She covered his hand on her face with her own. “I love you.”

“I thought you left me because you were done with me. That it was just sex and you were worried about getting into worse trouble because of me. I thought you were through with slumming.”

“Bellamy, I was afraid for you. I thought spending time with me was putting you in danger. I still think it is. The Ark is a powder keg, one incident away from disaster, and Diana Sydney reported me. Why would she do that? I think she’s after me and I don’t know why. What if she was trying to hurt me for some reason and could only get at you. I can’t let you get mixed up in all these politics. It’s not fair. There’s nothing to stop them from disappearing you and Octavia.”

“You were protecting ME?”

“I was protecting myself, too. My heart. You didn’t— I was just— we never even talked about—“

“Stop. Clarke. No.” His other hand rose to cup her face. “I’ve been in love with you for months. I didn’t think you could care about someone like me that way. I thought I was just a piece to you. I thought you were—“

“Don’t say slumming,” her voice cracked.

Bellamy’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry,” he breathed, and pulled her into his chest, wrapping his arms around her. He kissed the top of her head. “I love you and I should have known better.”

“Why should you? Have we really ever been open and honest with each other? I’ve been the slumming princess and you have been the dangerous low station man ready to break my heart for fun.”

“I’m not, Clarke.” He ran his hands up and down her back. 

“I’m not either.” It felt so good to be back in his arms. “I never was. You were never a game to me.” She felt like she could breathe for the first time in weeks. She put her ear to his chest and listened to his heart, his good strong heart. “I’m scared, Bellamy. The Ark is on the verge of destroying itself. We are all in danger.”

“What do you mean?” Bellamy pulled her out so he could look at her face.

“My mom, my dad, the council. They’re trying to keep… there are troubles among the people, between the classes…I don’t know what exactly is going to happen, but something is going to blow. There’s a war coming.” His soothing hand on her back stilled. His body tensed.

The last war humanity had seen destroyed the planet for centuries, killed off the whole population on the ground, made the earth uninhabitable. What would war do on The Ark, the fragile hundred year old ship holding the last of humankind.

Bellamy shook his head no, but his eyes darted off, she could practically see him thinking, remembering, connecting. “The people on factory are tired of being treated like they are,” he said. “And the guard has been more active than usual. They’ve suspended time off, added shifts. I’ve taken as many as I can, because of O. It’s mostly standing around with our stun batons, looking stern at lower station gatherings.”

Clarke searched his face, looking for… something, answers, confirmation, comfort, even denial.

“The lower stations are angry, more than angry,” he said. No answers. He dropped his arms and turned around to face away from her. “I need to think about this.”

She nodded emphatically to herself. “It’s too much. I know. I don’t belong here. I should go back to my apartment on GoSci and do what I can from where I am. I know. Just being here makes it worse.”

He whirled around and grabbed her arm, pulling her into his chest. “This is it. This is why you left me. Because of the Ark. Because of the council and Factory unrest and Diana Sydney and your clinic.”

She didn’t nod, but it was true. “I was so scared, I still am. What if all this mess blows up because of me, because I can’t follow their rules and do what they say, and you and Octavia and our friends get caught in it? I can’t risk that. I can’t risk you.”

“I get to say what I’m willing to risk, too, Clarke. I know how to be careful. Octavia certainly knows how to be careful. This is the first time you’ve ever had to worry about this kind of survival. We’ve been dealing with it our whole lives. I don’t care about the Ark. The Ark has never cared about us. What I care about is you.”

“But Bellamy, it’s not just—“

He put his finger under her chin and tilted his face up to hers. “Clarke,” he said, and his voice was low, and deep. “What we have? That’s not about the Ark.”

“So I’m not the princess anymore?” She made the half hearted joke.

He cocked his head. “You’re my princess.” His thumb brushed across her lower lip. “Whatever the Ark does, you are what I care about. My sister, our friends. You. We are something different, something more.”

His thumb swept across her lips again and they fell open, she breathed out shakily. “Kiss me, Bellamy. I’ve missed you so much.” Her arms reached up to draw his head down and he came willingly, devouring her lips with his. He was home to her. He was where she belonged. Her fingers raked through his curls and his tongue danced against hers. She sighed with happiness.

He he smiled against her lips and then kissed down the column of her neck, biting into the soft flesh underneath her loose collar. Her hands slid under his shirt, needing to feel his skin, roaming along his back and sides. “Don’t leave me again, Clarke.” He undid her top button and kissed her there. “Promise me. Not unless you really mean it. No more of this protecting me shit. We’re in this together.”

“I promise, Bellamy,” she said, her nails digging slightly into his ribs. “Together.” But that was all she could say because he had slipped aside her shirt and freed her breast from her bra cup. His mouth hot on her nipple, sucking, dragging a gasp from her. “Bellamy!” 

He pushed her up against a steel post and for a while it was just hot skin and panting breaths and remembering the taste of each other. 

When Clarke and Bellamy came back to the lab table, the group pretended to ignore them, involved as they were in a game of cups that was really just designed to get them blotto.

Clarke was glad to lean up against Bellamy’s side, not hiding their relationship, finally, and laugh at the dumb jokes that Jasper made, or the way that Wick and Raven sniped at each other, eyes bright. She even enjoyed the way Octavia was flirting with Wells, and more surprisingly the way Wells was flirting back. 

“Do you see that?” she said quietly in Bellamy’s ear, nodding at his sister and her best friend.

“Huh?” Bellamy answered, distracted. 

Clarke blinked and turned to look at him. He had a distant look in his eye and he chewed on his lip. “Are you okay?” she asked him. “Do you want to get out of here?”

He shook his head. “What? No, uh, I was just thinking about what you said before, about the, uh, Ark. Something about it is bothering me, but I can’t figure out what it is.” He slanted his eyes at the others. They were starting to notice the way Clarke and Bellamy were being so silent, so serious.

Clarke’s light hearted mood evaporated. She grimaced. It had been only temporary anyway, and moonshine induced. “Come back to my apartment, Bellamy. Let’s talk some more.”

He shook his head. “You’re right about one thing, Clarke. You shouldn’t be seen with me.”

Clarke sat up, her heart sinking. “What?”

He took her hand and looked into her eyes, pleadingly. “You’re right, it would bring the wrong sort of notice to all of us. I can’t risk being seen in the corridors with you.”

“But, you can meet me there…” Clarke said, staring at him.

“You’re being ridiculous, Bell,” Octavia interrupted. Of course she did. Of course she was paying attention to everyone around her, most particularly her brother. “Just go back through the air vents, the way we came here. It’s actually a short cut to her place. And at a low traffic hour like this, there’s probably no one anywhere near the panel on her walkway. I can take you through until you’re familiar, show you how it works, but don’t leave any sign that you were through. It’s not often that cleaning crews or mecha crews use those access vents, but they do. Seconds never leave a trace. It’s the rules.”

“Seconds have rules?” Jasper asked. Everyone was focused on their conversation now.

Octavia shot a serious look at Charlotte, who looked back with a deadly laser eye. “Seconds make their own rules. We all abide by them for our own benefit. If you want in on our secrets, you need to understand we do things our way.” And then Octavia was smiling again, with her bright and unassuming grin. “And that means we don’t leave a sign that we’ve been through our access vents, because that’s how we escape when we need to. And if it’s not a secret, then it is a very bad escape route.”

No one spoke, shocked into a silence that stretched out. 

“Agreed,” said Murphy, surprisingly the first to break the silence. He slammed his cup on the lab table. “Come on, Charlotte, let’s get home. This party is pretty much broken up. We don’t need to take the access vents. No one gives a shit about us. They barely even acknowledge our existence. But we shouldn’t all leave at the same time.” 

Murphy simply walked through the plants to the front door, without saying good bye, but Charlotte ran around and hugged everyone, stopping at Clarke, last, saying, “I’m glad you’re back. It didn’t seem right without you here.”

Murphy was right. The party was over. Somehow, even through the moonshine haze, they all realized that their group was now more about more than just illegal liquor. There were other secrets they shared. There were other connections that kept them apart from the rest of the Ark.


	12. Earth Shattering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brief get together with her parents sets Clarke's world spinning.

It was strange to be back in her old apartment, her parent’s apartment. It looked exactly the same, the couch, the framed drawings, the chairs and tables, but everything was different. Clarke thought that she was the one who had changed. Home was now an apartment with a view of the atrium in GoSci, and Bellamy Blake.

“I’m happy you could come with us to the Unity Day celebration, Clarke,” Abby said, sitting next to her on the couch, sipping a glass of potato vodka and lemon. “I’ve missed you.”

“It’s actually nice to be home. I’ve missed you too, mom.”

Jake came out of the kitchen, carrying two more glasses and offered one to Clarke before sitting next to her. “You know Bellamy was invited, both here and to the Unity Day celebration with us. You could have brought him. You’ve been together for months. He’s basically living with you, isn’t he?”

Clarke smiled. She noticed they didn’t include Octavia in the invitation. Perhaps it showed a measure of just how much she had grown up that she didn’t shove that in their faces. She even understood. They were high ranking council members from Alpha Station. Dealing with people’s reactions if the Griffins had invited a second child to the Unity Day celebration? Well, that was probably too much to ask of anyone.

“Not. He maintains his apartment on Factory with Octavia. And we… we try not to be seen together in public.”

Abby looked at her like she wasn’t aware of that information. Clarke wondered. She knew that she was still being watched. She saw people following her on GoSci, sometimes, people who were too still and too closely oriented in her direction, people who popped up throughout her day, in many of the places she went. “We’ve decided not to go public about our relationship. It seemed safer for everyone involved if we didn’t blatantly flaunt our inter-station romance about. We would like to keep the gossip down, since the clinic. Officially, we are not involved.”

“That’s very wise.” Her mother sipped her drink then smiled. “I’m proud of you.” Clarke tried not to take offense at that, chose to take it as a compliment. 

“I was actually surprised you invited him tonight. I would have thought the news that we weren’t together would have been reported to you. That we hadn’t seen each other since my clinic was raided… at least as far as anyone else knew.”

Abby looked at Jake, confused. “What do you mean?”

“The watchers. Didn’t you assign them to keep an eye on me?”

Jake raised his eyebrows at Abby, a question. “No!” Abby said, whipping her head back and forth between the two. “I did no such thing. I know I wasn’t totally on board with your relationship with Bellamy, and I have to apologize for that. It took me a while… to get used to it. I’d always thought that you and Wells…”

Clarke looked sternly at her mother.

Abby raised her hand, “But I understand that didn’t work out. And I can recognize a prejudice in myself when it is brought to my attention. I had certain… ideas… about who he was, being from Factory, and a second family. That kind of bigotry is part of why old Earth tore itself apart with wars and bombs and violence. Race, religion, nationality, gender, sexuality, class… there’s no place for these outmoded ideas in the Earth we want to create someday.” She stopped talking and put her drink down on the table. “You were right, Clarke.”

Clarke froze. It was as if the Ark station had reversed itself in its orbit. 

“I had to take a long look at the way I was perceiving the seconds, even the lower stations. I’ve spent some time with Octavia and I understand a bit better now. She is a remarkable girl.”

“You…” Clarke took another gulp of her drink. It didn’t feel as potent as Monty’s moonshine. Maybe it just didn’t burn as much so felt not as effective. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Octavia. The second. Bellamy’s sister. After you moved out and seemed to want nothing to do with us, and I saw how focused you were on your work. I was so proud of you for being so mature and responsible and I had to wonder if all this business with the clinic and Factory station and Bellamy and his sister wasn’t just about your youthful rebellion.”

“Mom, that was never what it was about.”

Abby looked at Jake. He nodded towards her and she continued. “Yes. I understand that now. I’m sorry that I under estimated you. It was hard for me to realize that you were, are a grown woman, with ideas and goals of your own.”

It was Clarke’s turn to look at her father for support. He simply smiled at her. None of this was new to him.

“Are you apologizing to me, mom?”

“Yes. I am. Your clinic was a good thing. You desire to help the people on Factory was a good thing. Did you know that the psych center charted a marked increase of morale in Factory station, starting at the opening of your practice? Productivity went up, too. And minor crimes went down.”

“It did?” Clarke could only gape at Abby.

Abby nodded. “As chief medical officer, I have to consider the benefit of smaller, walk in clinics on every station, particularly the lower stations.” Abby paused and took a deep breath. “And as I thought about the value of these clinics, I had to start rethinking my own responsibilities towards the second population.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Clarke repeated, looking back and forth between her mother and father. Her mother leaned forward slightly, as if eager to speak, as if she had been waiting a long time to say this. But her father sat back, waiting, listening. Letting them speak.

“I’m a doctor. I’m in charge of the physical well being of every human on the Ark. I have been remiss in my duties. A whole population has not received medical care. I’ve brought a bill before the council, rescinding the “no resources” policy in regards to second children.”

Clarke’s mouth dropped open in shock. She blinked at Abby. “Did you know about this, dad? Why hasn’t anyone heard about this?”

He nodded. “Your mother and I have been discussing it since you left, but this was her decision, as head of medical and council member. I support her.”

Clarke hugged Abby. “Thank you.” She said, not even trying to hide the tears. ‘Why didn’t Octavia tell me? She didn’t even say she’d talked to you.”

“Probably because she didn’t know. It’s only a bill and not ready for public debate. It needs to pass the council, and there might be quite a fight, but I think it has a real shot.”

“That’s wonderful mom.”

“Plus, I think Octavia thought I was inviting her to my office to talk about you, and try to find out more about Bellamy.”

“Which of course you were,” Clarke said. Not even upset that her mother had pumped Octavia for info.

“Of course. I’m still your mother.”

“Thanks, mom.” She took a bigger sip of her drink than she probably should have. She could barely contain herself. But Abby was not done. She pressed her lips together and took a deep breath.

“Your research project request was brought before the council, Clarke,” her mother said. Of course she did. Clarke should have expected it.

“Abby, it’s Unity Day.”

“I know what day it is, Jake. We barely get to see our daughter at all. When else am I going to be able to talk to her about it outside of my official capacity as council member and head of medical?”

“It’s okay, Dad,” Clarke said. She knew what this was about. She’d actually come today expecting to have her mother light into her about it. “You’re talking about my proposal to send a human subject to earth in a pod to test our ability to withstand Earth radiation.”

“Clarke, you’re aware it sounds crazy, right? That there are some members of the council who are questioning your level of mental stability?”

Clarke’s stomach sank. “I’m not crazy.”

“I know that, Clarke. I read your report. I understand the ramifications of our genetically engineered radiation resistance, but you are also taking a great risk putting yourself out there like this. This is something that could have earth shattering repercussions within the Ark.”

“That’s the point, mom. Earth. Dad said it. The Ark is dying. We need a way out.”

“Your father was being metaphorical. There is a level of instability, yes, but don’t you see that we can fix it? The response to your clinic alone says that the hope of a more equal society can be turn everything around. Just the hope something like that brings has an effect. What could change if we actually start looking to create more equity for the lower stations?”

“So, my request is going to be rejected,” Clarke finished off her vodka. Her father took the empty glass from her hands and quirked his eyebrow at her. This evening was turning out to be a lot more intense than she had expected, and they hadn’t even gotten to the formal Ark Unity Day Celebration on GoSci where she would have to be paraded in front of the cameras for all the citizens to see their happy leadership.

Abby nodded. “It’s an interesting idea, but much more research needs to be done.”

“Dr Gelfland has research going back to the cataclysm.”

“And he was also an unstable man who committed suicide by Earth.”

“I don’t think he committed suicide. I think he escaped the Ark to live on the surface.”

“There’s no evidence of that. No evidence that he is alive down there.”

“That’s why I want to send a pod with a volunteer.”

“It’s a suicide mission.”

“But what if it’s not? What if we really can live on the surface. What if we are resistant to the radiation, the way Dr Gelfland’s research suggests?”

“Well if we can, then your proposal would still be rejected. One test subject wouldn’t give us enough data to know the results of our radiation resistance at all. You know that. You’d need at least… oh, a hundred subjects to account for the variables.”

“So, you’re saying I should request a hundred subjects to go down to the surface.”

“No! That’s ridiculous. We don’t even have a hundred pods.”

“Well,” Jake spoke up, after listening to his wife and daughter in silence. Clarke could tell he was thrumming with excitement. “There is that dropship over on Aero. That would fit a hundred subjects.”

“What dropship?” Clarke asked him.

“It’s part of the fleet.”

“What fleet?”

“You know how in less than a century, the plan is to take the Ark population down to the ground? We’ve been retrofitting shuttles and ships for the last twenty years or so. It’s not high on the list of priorities as far as labor and resources go, but we’ve been slowly chipping away at it. There’s the main exodus ship, two smaller ones. The drop ship that would fit the 100 subjects, and a collection of shuttles of various sizes and states of repair. Most of these came from the original thirteen stations.”

Clarke and Abby stared at him.

“This is crazy,” Abby said. “We can’t send a hundred citizens down to earth on a suicide mission.”

“It’s a mission of life. Of really living. Of doing more than just surviving in a metal box spinning in the void.” Clarke’s heart was beating so hard. 

“Volunteers, Abby. We could ask for volunteers.”

“I know people who would volunteer, mom.”

Abby looked at her daughter in horror. The clock on the desk chimed. They all looked at it.

“It’s time for the Unity Day celebration,” Abby said. “We should go. We need to be there for the speeches and presentation. We can talk about this later.”

They all stood up to go. No one talking, each person lost in their thoughts. So many thoughts. They walked through Alpha on the way to GoSci, smiling and nodding absently at people who greeted them.

Right before they entered the crowded atrium on GoSci, under the beautiful light of the Earth, Clarke put her hand on her mother’s arm to stop her.

“I’m going to rewrite my proposal and submit it to the council again,” Clarke said.

Abby took Clarke’s hand and enfolded it in her own. “Of course you are. I would expect no less.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do we think about Abby in this one? It seems that Clarke's act of rebellion in setting up her Factory clinic has started many balls rolling.


	13. Unity Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the Unity Day celebration and Clarke is attending with her family, and all the pomp and circumstance of GoSci. Bellamy is a guard stationed there and she can't help telling him all the good news she just learned from her mother, even though she knows they are supposed to be pretending not to know each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm powering through with this. If you catch any mistakes or rough writing, I apologize, but I'm trying to get it done before nanowrimo starts in November. I still don't know if I will get to the end of the story, but I'm aiming for it.

The GoSci atrium was packed with the cream of Ark society, from Alpha station luminaries to high ranking officials, to scientists famed for their scholarship, discoveries and inventions. The Griffins were all three. 

They walked through the celebration greeting everyone. Clarke saw Wells standing with his father Chancellor Jaha near the podium, and Monty chatting with Wick near the drink station, but she knew who she was looking for. Her parents found a cluster of council members and settled into an amicable conversation. Clarke said hello, but pulled back from the group. Whenever she saw Diana Sydney, her stomach turned over. She couldn’t forget that the woman had turned her in and shut down her clinic.

But that was when she spotted Bellamy, standing guard by one of the rear doors. Her heart leapt and she wandered off into the crowd, taking a seemingly random turn about the room, but unerringly headed in one direction.

“Guardsman Blake,” Clarke nodded to him in passing, the glint in her eye belying the formal tone in her voice.

“Doctor Griffin,” he replied in kind. “Enjoy your Unity Day.” He had gotten Kane to assign him to the official celebration, with its increased guard presence. 

Bellamy stayed where he was, at his post, but Clarke walked past him and then circled back to lean against the pillar on the other side of him, facing the other direction.

“I have so much to tell you,” she said.

“Is now the time?” he muttered as he ducked his head.

“I don’t care,” she said. “My mother said my clinic was actually a success, improving morale and productivity in Factory. She’s going to start clinics on all the lower stations. She thinks they will help with the unrest, and my father didn’t disagree.”

“Wow,” he Bellamy muttered, as he scanned the crowd for anything suspicious, as he was assigned. He didn’t look at her, but she could see the struggle he was having to not show his surprise on his face. 

“I just can’t believe that my clinic could have made a difference. That the little I could do to help could actually have a lasting effect on the Ark. On the people who are struggling and unhappy, on the council. It’s kind of amazing. Oh, yeah. And she’s not the one that has been having me followed. Which I’m kind of relieved about because, what kind of person would that make my mother if she hired people to spy on me?” Clarke chuckled into her mineral infused sparkling water. “But she is still my mother. She’s been talking to Octavia. Pumping her for information on you and me. I think she’s kind of accepted us.”

Bellamy’s eyebrows drew together. “Octavia?” Clarke had to look at him for this part. He was watching the crowd of council members shmoozing. Abby and Jake Griffin, Chancellor Jaha. Marcus Kane, his boss. Diana Sydney. Bellamy’s eyebrows were drawn together, as if he was trying to figure something out. 

“But that’s not the best part Bellamy. I think all this, the clinic, you, Octavia, my mother might have started some lasting changes. My mother says that she’s made a proposal before council to rescind the second child no resources law.”

Clarke waited for his reaction. His expression didn’t change from the serious, concerned look. His eyes darted around the festivities. 

“Did you hear me, Bellamy? An end to the second child laws. Octavia will be a real citizen. This is going to change everything. Bellamy?” She looked around, at what he was seeing. It seemed nothing to her. The same press of bodies getting ready for the ceremony, which she was sure would start any minute. She really didn’t want to have to stand on the podium with the council members.

“Why are there so many people from Mecha and Agro and Factory here?” Bellamy asked, on alert.

“What?” That didn’t make sense. Clarke looked around. Milling about with the upper station people in their best outfits were, indeed, folks who were more working class. 

“I know these people.” Bellamy said. “These are not good people. They will do anything for the right price.”

Two things happened then. Clarke saw the group of council members start heading for the podium, Chancellor Jaha gesturing them forward. Her mother looked up, and Clarke knew she was looking for her, to take her place with them. And a loud “Psst!” sounded from the kitchen door that Bellamy was guarding.

Murphy stood there, in his janitor coveralls, pushing a mop and a bucket through the door.

“They’re after Clarke,” Murphy hissed. “They want to make her a martyr. They want to start a war and overthrow the council.”

Clarke looked at him, horrified, not really even understanding what he was saying. It was incomprehensible. She laughed. “What?”

But Bellamy wasn’t confused. “Where did Diana Sydney go?” He said, looking around. “Miller!” he barked. 

Miller veered over to him from where he was doing rounds through the atrium. Bellamy grabbed Miller’s sleeve and shoved him towards Clarke. “Get her out of here,” he said. “Hide her.”

“What?” Clarke said. “Bellamy, what’s going—“

But Bellamy was already gone, pressing through the crowd towards the council members, and Miller had shoved her through the kitchen doors into the back. 

“I was in the air vents,” Murphy said, “Avoiding my supervisor. I heard them planning to take out Clarke and blame the lower stations.”

“Take us to the vent, Murphy,” Miller said.

Clarke’s heart was beating. “They wouldn’t!”

“Sure they would, princess,” Murphy said, and dragged her with him to a spot behind the potato bins. He popped the latch and pushed her through, letting Miller in before latching it behind him. “Two passages and then go to the left, and you’ll hit the duct that will take you to the moonshine lab. Be careful, stay in the wall. It’s not Jasper’s shift. I’m going to warn the others.” And then Murphy took off. 

Clarke looked at Miller. “What is going to happen?” It was real.

Miller shook his head. “I don’t know.” 

And then Clarke knew. “It was Diana Sydney. She reported me. She’s the one who has set spies on me. She wants to overthrow the council, but things were starting to happen! Clinics in the lower station. My mother wanted to repeal the second child laws. Diana couldn’t let that happen.” She stopped him from urging her deeper into the vents. “My mother is a target, too. I should be there. I need to warn her.”

“Bellamy is on it.”

She wanted to protest, but she knew he was right. Bellamy had figured it out before her. If Diana Sydney wanted to use her as a weapon against the council, she needed to remove herself from the equation. “It feels wrong to run.”

Miller nodded, but still pushed her deeper into the vents.

As they went through, they could hear the party in the atrium still going on, the microphones kicked on. The music began to play. She could hear Chancellor Jaha welcoming everyone on the Ark to the Unity Day celebration. This was going out live on the Ark wide channel. 

A chill ran down her spine and then the microphones squealed. She stopped and turned around to look at Miller in the dark shadows of the air vent. Someone screamed. Shouting, although she couldn’t make out what was said. More people screamed, and then there was a gun shot. They could hear commotion, people running, screaming. More gunshots.

“Miller…” she said to him, terrified. Her terror was reflected back in the glint of his eyes in the dark. He shook his head. 

“We’ve got to keep going.”

She could hardly breathe, but she kept going. She kept hearing gunshots, but she wasn’t sure if she was really hearing them or if she was just imagining them, remembering them. Her ears rang with them long after they hit the Agro vents, a station away.


	14. Hiding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fresh from an aborted assassination attempt, Clarke must hide in the wall behind the hydroponic lab.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One hour. Welcome to first-draft seat-of-my-pants writing land. We don't need no stinking editing.

Miller and Clarke stayed hiding in the wall behind the hydroponic soybean lab. Peering through the grate, they could see the agro workers harvesting the beans, gather sacks around their necks. They got extra credits for working on a holiday. A surprisingly lot of workers had given up their unity day to bring in the main protein source for the Ark citizens. 

Clarke watched them work, rather than worry about what had happened, or where Bellamy was, or if her mother was safe. Or her father. Or Wells, or any of her friends.

Octavia showed up not too long after, Charlotte on her heels. 

“Where’s Bellamy?” was Clarke’s first, whispered question.

Octavia shook her head, tightly and Clarke’s anxiety shot through the roof. She reached out and grabbed Octavia’s wrist tightly. “O…” she said.

“No, Clarke, he’s okay. Shh.” Octavia removed her hand and shook out her wrist. “He’s with Marcus Kane. There’s a— I don’t know— a fight? There are people in the halls and common areas. An uprising. The lower stations. They’ve closed down travel between the stations. It’s mandatory curfew.” She looked through the grates at the soybean harvesters. “I’m surprised they haven’t shut down the fields yet.” 

“It’s Diana Sydney, isn’t it?”

“I think so. I didn’t get to talk to Bellamy. He warned Kane before anything happened. Saved a lot of lives I think, but…”

“But what?”

“I think Miller needs to go back to the guard. Anyone missing is going to be pretty suspicious.”

“I’ll head to security,” Miller said, his hand on his stun baton.

“Go right to Bellamy or Kane, no one else, Miller,” Octavia warned. “We don’t know how deep this goes. I’ll stay here with Clarke until someone comes to get her.”

Miller nodded and left without a word. “I want to get out there, too, Octavia. I know I can’t help Bellamy, but I can go to my mom. If people are hurt I want to help.”

Octavia shook her head, looked over to Charlotte where she was standing, silently. She nodded at the younger girl. Charlotte went to grab a jug of moonshine.

Just then there was a commotion on the other side of the wall. The door burst open and guards poured into the room, shouting at the harvesters to get down on the floor.

Clarke rushed to the grate to peer through, before Octavia grabbed her arm and pulled her back, away, into the shadows. “We don’t know what side they’re on,” she whispered into her ear. “And we don’t really know what either side will do to us if they find us hiding in these walls.”

All they could do was stand there and listen as the guards gathered up the harvesters, their soybeans left behind in their sacks in piles on the floor, and led them out of the hydroponic lab. Clarke could hear the lock snapping shut after they went.

“What’s going on?” Clarke said.

“Madness.”

“We should go back to my apartment, Octavia.” The lab was cleared of people and she knew she didn’t have to whisper any more, but she couldn’t help herself.

She shook her head emphatically. “Hell no, Clarke. They are after you. All of them. Tell her Charlotte.”

Charlotte nodded, her voice tremulous. “I spend most of my time in the vents. I don’t like being out there with people. I listen too much to what they say behind doors. It’s been going on for a while, they’ve been talking about killing all the people on alpha and taking over. But they need to have the lower stations behind them. That’s why they want you.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I’ve been getting little bits and pieces here and there. They want to force Jaha’s hand, to make him do something terrible in retaliation to the lower stations. I guess there’s contingency plans or something, but it wasn’t until today that I realized what they wanted to do was to assassinate you.”

“That’s what Murphy said,” Clarke said, feeling surprisingly dispassionate about being a murder target. “Murphy said he’s the one who heard.”

Charlotte shook her head. “I told him to warn you. He tried to keep me out of it. But I’m in it. You’re the one that can help us Clarke.”

“I can go to Jaha, then. Or Kane for protection. He’s on our side, right?”

“What is our side, Clarke?” 

Clarke didn’t know. Maybe Diana Sydney wanted to kill her, but Jaha might very well consider her a threat and put her in the skybox. Or maybe she’d be guarded under lock and key for her safety. It was much the same thing. Or maybe she’d be floated as an agitator. She had started this whole thing by flouting the system.

“Okay. Then we should go to my mother. I know she’s on our side.”

Octavia and Charlotte exchanged glances. Charlotte brought a cup of moonshine to Clarke. 

“Your mother is doing emergency surgery right now.” Octavia said. 

“Who has been hurt?” There had been no surgery scheduled for today. 

“It’s your father, Clarke. He took the bullet that was meant for your mother.”

Clarke could feel all the blood leaving her face. Her legs started to shake. Octavia took the cup that was about to fall from her fingers and lifted it to her lips. “Drink,” she said. Clarke grabbed at the cup from Octavia’s hand and downed it in one gulp. “He’ll be okay, Clarke. Your mother is taking care of him. She’s the best doctor on the whole Ark. She will do everything she can to save him.”

“Is it bad?” she asked.

“I don’t know. There was a lot of blood on the atrium floor.” 

“Oh my god,” Clarke said, and felt her knees give out. She sat down on the dark, metal floor, in the shadows. “And there’s a war going on. Right now. Guns, weapons. Bombs?”

“Yeah. I don’t know. I think so. It’s pretty bad on GoSci right now, and the guards are shutting down everything they can.”

“There’s a war, and Bellamy is out there, fighting it. We should do something, Octavia.”

“What are we going to do, Clarke?”

“You can fight.”

“I can wrestle. Or throw a punch at another girl. Or stick a knife in someone’s kidney from behind.”

Clarke looked at her in shock. “What? I’m a second, I have to know how to do the worst, because some people would do the worst to me.”

“It’s true,” Charlotte said.

“It is,” Octavia continued, “but that doesn’t mean I can fight an army of rebels with guns and stun batons and everything else.”

“We need guns.”

“Well we don’t have guns, Clarke. Do you want to go ask Marcus Kane for some rifles?” Octavia laughed.

“I could get us guns,” Charlotte said.

Both women looked at the girl. “What?” Clarke asked.

“Yeah. I told you. I’ve been spying on them. They’ve got a stockpile. I don’t know where they got the guns from, but I know where they are. It seems to me that if you steal from thieves it doesn’t really count as a crime.”

“I agree,” Clarke said and pushed herself up from the floor. “Let’s go get those guns, Charlotte.” It might have been the shot of moonshine talking, or maybe the booze just let her accept the reality that she had been trying to deny since Murphy hissed at them. 

“Woah, there Clarke. You have to wait here until Bellamy comes. He will kill me if I let you run off and he doesn’t know where you are.”

“I’m not going to stay here hiding while Bellamy is out there facing down people who want to kill me. I won’t do it. I won’t let him risk his life for me. I’m going with Charlotte and we’re taking that stash.”

“And just where do you think you’re going without me, princess?” Bellamy stepped out of the shadows into the space behind the lab.

“Bellamy!” Clarke cried and rushed into his arms. 

“Oh thank god,” Octavia sighed. “I thought I was going to have to pin her in an arm lock to get her from doing something stupid.”

Bellamy hugged her, his arms wrapping around her, as she sobbed into his neck. “What was she going to do?” he asked his sister.

Octavia snorted. “She was going to steal the rebels’ stockpile of guns.”

Bellamy pulled Clarke back and looked at her questioningly. “Charlotte knows where they are hiding their guns. She says she can get us there.”

Charlotte nodded when he looked over at her.

“Let’s go,” he said. 

“What?” Octavia said.

He let go of Clarke finally. She smiled at him. “Let’s go get those guns before those assholes can use them.”

Charlotte nodded, and waved at them to follow her. 

“This is a bad idea,” Octavia said.

“This is a great idea,” Clarke said, feeling a pleasure that didn’t seem to fit in the horror of the day. She realized she was more than just angry or scared. She was determined.


	15. So We Can Survive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rebels come looking for Clarke

Clarke could barely move. The space was so tight, and dark, she imagined it being very close to lying in a coffin. She had only ever read of coffins, or seen them on pre cataclysm movies. In space, there was no burial, there was only floating, and release into the absolute zero of the void, shooting towards the atmosphere, and the fiery incineration of becoming a shooting star.

She didn’t know why thoughts of being dead and gone comforted her as she hid under the floor in Bellamy and Octavia’s quarters. Perhaps it was better than being terrified of the rebels ripping apart the room right above her. The stomping of their boots echoing all the way from her teeth down to her toes as she lie there, silent, hoping they didn’t realize that the panel in the floor was loose and she, Clarke Griffin, the object of their search, was waiting there for them to find her.

She thought of being on the ground, then. Not of lying in a hole in the floor, but of lying in a hole in the ground, with dirt being shoveled on top of her, slowly covering her peaceful body. She imagined that it was cool, and heavy, and that it smelled like the mushrooms they got every once in a while from Agro.

It was better than remembering the moment when the thugs broke in through the door and started knocking Octavia around when she told them to get the fuck out of her room. Or how Clarke couldn’t do anything about it, frozen in her metal hole, listening to the thud of fists and boots, and the grunts Octavia couldn’t hold back. Right now, she could hear Octavia muttering, huddling right above Clarke’s hiding place.

“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” A mantra.

After what seemed like forever, Clarke heard the stomping boots leave. 

“Your brother is a traitor,” she heard, growled out by a masculine voice, probably somewhere near the door.

“He does what he has to so we can survive, Dax.”

The voice grunted. “You tell him he picked the wrong side. I do what I have to also. They let me out of the sky box. I’m going to help them take this tin can. This is the last time my friendship with Bellamy will protect you.”

The boots stomped away. Clarke heard Octavia get up and shuffle over to the door. She slammed it closed. Other things were shoved around and then the trap door was raised.

Clarke blinked up at Octavia. “I should stay in here,” she said. “They could come back. If that was protecting you, I don’t want to know what will happen next.”

“We’ve already had two visits from jack-booted thugs. I don’t think we have any other rival forces trying to take you.” Octavia reached her hand down and Clarke took it, letting the other woman pull her up and out of the dubious safety of the hole in the floor.”

“At least the Ark guards didn’t beat you up.”

“Yeah, well, at least we had Murphy warn us the rebels were coming with two minutes to spare to get you into hiding. Bellamy gave us longer lead time with the Ark guards, but then, Kane knows we’re hiding you and wants you to stay hidden.”

“It’s scary that Kane doesn’t trust his own guards enough to have me in protective custody.” Clarke sighed. “Let me look at your injuries.”

Octavia lifted up a different floor panel and pulled out a box.

“My med kit!” Clarke said. “You saved it. I thought you would have sold it or something.” 

Octavia shook her head. “I might have if I had to, but I thought it might come in handy someday.” She laughed and winced at the bruise on her cheek.

Clarke slid the med kit over and sat Octavia on the bed so she could treat her. “You look just like your brother when I first met him,” she said. “He was throwing those fights and came in all beaten up. He thought he’d punctured a lung, but it was just a bruised rib.” She smiled at the memory, then sighed. “I thought I was being so careful, Octavia, staying away from you and your brother. I thought I would keep you safe if nobody knew how close we were.”

“Known associates, Clarke. Even if they didn’t know about Bellamy and you, they knew I was working for you.”

She shook her head as she activated the cold pack and put it on Octavia’s eye. “Maybe I should get out of here. I put you in danger.”

“Shit.” Bellamy came through the door right at that moment. He carried a stun baton, open in his hands and his usually slicked back hair was mussed and curled uncontrollably. His eyes scanned the room. Bellamy rushed over to Octavia, turned her head with a hand on her chin. “Shit. Did the guards do this? Kane promised me.”

“No,” Octavia said. “It wasn’t the guards.”

He cocked his head. “The rebels.”

“They suspect us of hiding Clarke, too.”

“Dax told me you picked the wrong side and being friends wasn’t going to help us.”

“Fuck,” Bellamy said, and stood up. “Clarke,” his hand came to Clarke’s shoulder as she continued to treat Octavia. Her eyes rose to meet his. She didn’t speak because she knew what he was about to tell her and, dammit she didn’t want to know. She felt the tears come to her eyes and she turned back to Octavia. It was much easier to take care of a patient than it was to allow herself to feel things.

“Clarke,” Bellamy said, sitting next to Octavia and taking Clarke’s hand, sounding so gentle and worried.

Dammit. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. She didn’t want to hear it.

“He’s alive, Clarke.” Her eyes flew open to look at Bellamy. “Your father is alive. Abby saved him. He’s in recovery. He’ll be okay.”

Clarke sucked in a breath so big it turned into a sob half way through. “He’s alive?” she asked, not believing. Bellamy nodded. But there was a shadow in his face. Something he wasn’t telling her. “What? What is it?”

“It’s your mother. She’s in the sky box.”

Clarke laughed. It didn’t make sense. “My mother is in the sky box? That’s ridiculous.”

“She exceeded medical rationing to save your father. Jaha is using her as an example. He can’t tolerate law breakers anymore. Not with rebels at the air locks. The fight isn’t going well. They are about to take Factory. I came to get you out of here.”

“The rebels are taking Factory and my mother in sky box.” Clarke was having a hard time comprehending this, but Octavia was already in action, despite her bruises and beatings, she was opening compartments and stuffing things into satchels. She turned momentarily and looked at Clarke. “The med kit, Clarke. Pack it up. It’s coming with us.”

“Oh,” Clarke said, blinking at Bellamy. Who smiled sadly at her and then went to another compartment, removing a pack from inside. “You’re ready for this. How did you know this would happen?”

“We’re always ready to get away if we have to.” Bellamy said. “Can’t ever know what could happen, with a second. We’ve always been ready to disappear.”

Octavia had finished packing bags and was instead working on the screws of a panel behind the bed. The screws were half out before Clarke shook herself out of her shock and finished packing up the med kit. 

“Drugs in the same place the kit was,” Octavia said over her shoulder, and Clarke lay down to the open panel in the floor, reaching under the way Octavia had. She pulled out the box with the meds in it that Octavia had saved from the raid on her clinic. She hugged it to her chest. Bellamy replaced all the loose panels, tightening them with screws they had apparently removed. Octavia finished opening the panel. 

“Let’s go,” she said, and went through, waving Clarke to follow her. Bellamy shouldered his pack and picked up the med kit, urging her into the wall. He came after her and stopped to refasten the screws from the inside.

“They won’t know about our escape route,” he said. “They won’t know where we went at all.”

“Disappeared.”

He nodded. 

“What about Kane, Bellamy? Won’t he wonder why you aren’t with the guard?”

“Who do you think told me they were getting ready to seal off Factory? He told me to get you out of here.” He pushed her through the vent tunnels. “We’ve got to go before Jaha seals the locks between stations.”

“Wait. What about the people on Factory? They aren’t all rebels.”

“When they defeat the rebels, they will open the locks again. The rebels have no reason to hurt any of the people on Factory.”

“Bellamy…” she said, and she knew doubt was in her voice.

He pressed his lips together, a look of guilt sliding across his face. He shook his head. “We’ve got to go before we’re trapped too. Let’s move.”


	16. No Way To Live

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to hiding in the wall while a rebellion rages around them, the gang gets bad news, and then more bad news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kind of proud of myself for getting this out. Life is crazy right now. Work, Halloween, Nanowrimo, kids, an art project that is also on a should be done by Halloween timeline but is really not going to be done.
> 
> Here's another chapter at least.

“We can’t keep hiding here in the wall behind the hydro lab, Bellamy,” Clarke jumped on Bellamy before he even properly got into the little space where they stored the moonshine still. 

“That is exactly what you’re going to do, Clarke. And you, too, Octavia.” Octavia leaned against the girders and sneered at him.

“You don’t have to warn us,” Murphy said, although Bellamy hadn’t been warning them.

He and Charlotte were squatting in the corner, playing a game with dice and cards that Clarke did not understand. “We aren’t going anywhere.”

“We’re just happy to not be in Factory,” Charlotte added. Her eyes were dark with a quiet, resigned kind of fear that Clarke did not like in the slightest and she knew Charlotte was far too familiar with.

“It’s getting pretty crowded back here,” Octavia complained. The girl was getting antsy. She didn’t like to be confined to one space. She liked to be able be on the move. Clarke thought about that little hole in the floor and wondered how many times Octavia had to hide in the tiny space to avoid trouble. “How long do you expect us to to cower here?”

“As long as we need to. Monty has broken into the computer feeds and is monitoring the surveillance cameras. He’s got looped feeds playing on all the vital cameras, so we can come and go without being seen. Same for the agro lab, so it’s safe, for now. Come on,” he said, as he unscrewed the access panel into the lab. “We can talk in here. The rest are coming. Things are going wrong. Real wrong.”

The five of them gladly settled around the lab table. Murphy had brought the moonshine and poured himself a cup. Charlotte elbowed him and held out her own cup for a share.

They clinked glasses and huddled there at the end of the lab table, setting up another round of their dice/card game, not much different than they had in the wall. That was what it meant to be a second, Clarke thought, then she looked at Bellamy and Octavia, standing at the access panel, deep in serious conversation, also a family of seconds, also not belonging anywhere on the Ark, just like Murphy and Charlotte. 

Clarke went up to Bellamy and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. “I miss you when you’re not here.” She could see his smile over his shoulder. “And I worry about you when you’re out there fighting the rebels.”

He ducked his head and his hands landed on hers. He unwrapped them from his waist and turned to look at her. “Clarke, I said things are going wrong, they are. But it’s not just the rebels.” His brows were drawn together in concern. “Most of the rebel fighters are isolated on Factory, and the rest are either dead or in the sky box. Which means they aren’t going to be alive much longer.” He paused and took a breath. 

“Jaha and the council have instituted a new discipline policy. All crimes are now capital crimes. They have decided that they cannot risk rebellion any more, for the safety of the the Ark, so any crime conviction, no matter how petty, will now get a sentence of floating.

Clarke stared at him in horror. “Anything?” He nodded. She thought of something even worse. “My mother? She’s in the sky box for exceeding medical rations to save my father…”

Bellamy pressed his lips together severely. “They are going to float her, Clarke.”

Octavia grabbed her arm. The girl’s face was horrified. “Clarke, I’m so sorry.”

A terrible thought occurred to Clarke. “Does that mean they are going to float the seconds? Technically, they are all against the law.”

Bellamy was shocked. “I don’t… I don’t know. According to the policy, they could. If they wanted to. And Jaha seems to want to float everyone right now.”

“What are we going to do, Bellamy? We have to save my mother.”

“How are we supposed to do that? Break her out of jail? Wouldn’t that just get everyone else floated too?” Octavia asked.

“There’s more,” Bellamy said. Clarke didn’t know how there could be anything worse than this. “They’ve made a list of suspected rebels. You’re on the list, Clarke.”

“Me? But they were trying to assassinate me.”

“Apparently, Jaha doesn’t like it that you’ve been missing and haven’t come in for protection. He believes you’ve been fraternizing with the Factory rebels.”

She gaped at him. The truth was, she had been fraternizing with the Factory rebels, just not the rebels who had started the rebellion. Just this man she loved and his wild sister and a small group of young people who wanted something different than what they were expected to want. She started laughing. “I suppose that means I’m going to get floated, too.”

“They are not going to float you, Clarke. I won’t let it happen.”

“What are you going to do, Blake? Hide me in the wall for the rest of my life? That's no way to live.”

He opened his mouth as if to retort, but had nothing to say.

“That’s bullshit,” added a new voice, as she came through the access panel. “They’re not going to float you,” Raven said, as Wick and Monty and Jasper came in behind her. “They would have to give you a trial first. And they’ve got nothing on you.”

“I don’t know Raven,” Jasper said, heading right for the moonshine. “She kind of is a rebel. If they wanted to, they could make something stick.”

“Well, fuck.” Raven said. “They could float all of us. Just for being here, breaking curfew, traveling the vents, drinking moonshine.”

The group looked around the room, without words. Jasper started handing out cups of moonshine. It seemed the only appropriate response. Clarke hadn’t even had enough to drink to make a dent in her frazzled nerves, leaning pressed up between Bellamy’s legs as he sat on his stool, just wanting to be held in his arms, when a pounding came at the hydroponic lab door. The pounding stopped almost as quickly as it had started.

Monty quickly swiped his tablet and looked up at them. “It’s okay. It’s Miller and Wells.”

Jasper let them in and Miller and Wells rushed through the greenery.

“We’ve got to do something,” Wells said, breathing heavily, before anyone could say anything to him.

Clarke found herself on her feet, coming to him, a reflex. “What happened?”

“It’s my father. I don’t understand. He’s gone crazy or something. He’s going to de-oxygenate all of Factory.”

Clarke stared at him. “No, he couldn’t.”

“The roots of the rebellion have wormed farther into the Ark than he suspected. He’s pretty sure there are rebels on every station, working against him and the council at every level. He doesn’t trust anyone anymore. He’s decided the only way to shut it down is to sacrifice the main of the rebel leadership, who are all isolated on Factory where the battle was. He’s going to kill them all.”

“But what about all the Factory workers who just live there? They aren’t all rebels.” Octavia asked. 

“He says it’s for the greater good.” Wells said, his deep brown eyes unbearably heart broken.


	17. F*cked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Impending disaster from every direction. Rebellion. Floating. Destruction of the Ark. What will they do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mama's powering through, kids.

“We won’t let that happen, Wells,” Clarke promised, feeling crazy for making that kind of promise. How could this group of rag tag misfits…delinquents even, ever stop the rebels, the guards, the council? “We can’t let all those people be sacrificed just so we can stop a rebellion.”

“Maybe,” Bellamy said, “If we can somehow reopen the locks on the vents, we can get in there and stop the rebels without killing innocent people?”

“How?” Wells, asked. “Even if we do manage to work with the guard to do that, the council will never trust anyone from Factory again. They are all suspect. If they are suspect, then they are vulnerable to a death sentence. The Chancellor is desperate. I’ve never seen him like this before.”

Clarke looked at her best friend. She didn’t want to tell him that she had seen his father’s irrational side before, the way he always looked at the world in black and white, us and them. It was one of the reasons she had distanced herself from Wells, because he seemed to be following in his father’s foot steps. But now he saw what she had seen. She knew how it felt to discover your parent was a flawed person. She opened her mouth to comfort him.

“Heads up,” Harper said before she comes in through the access panel, a sour look on her face. “Look who I found lost in the vents.”

Finn stepped into the hydroponics lab, and behind him, a scared looking woman with brown hair and big eyes. “This is Mel,” Finn said, his eyes flitting from face to face, stopping briefly on Bellamy’s, before looking at me pleadingly, and settling on Raven. “You have to help us.”

Clarke was surprised to realize that Harper had one of the rebels’ guns. Not only did she have one, but it was out, pointed in Finn and Mel’s direction, and she had a feeling the safety was off. Harper glared at Finn. She’d been friends with Raven when Raven had found out he was cheating on her. And then, when she met Clarke, she realized who he had been cheating on her with. It always had made her mad that Finn could treat them both so badly, but Clarke didn’t think she’d actually shoot him.

“What’s going on, now,” Bellamy said. Clarke could see a muscle twitching in his jaw. 

Finn turned back to Bellamy. “Murphy got a warning to me, to get Mel out of Factory before the Ark locked them down. I managed to get some of the workers out, and some of my students from Earth Skills class, but we’ve got nowhere to go. And Mel is on the list of rebel sympathizers. They are going to float her. They’re going to float all of them.”

Mel spoke up for the first time. “I’m not a sympathizer, but my father is a rebel and my mother supports them. I don’t want this. I don’t want…” She stopped talking and chewed on her lips, looking at them, afraid. 

“You know something,” Clarke said. She stepped forward to the girl and took a hold of her arms.

“They are going to blow up Alpha. They’ve already planted a bomb. They’ve got it all set up, just waiting for the time. And there are people on the outside who are going to break the locks on Factory, so they can attack while the Ark is weakened.”

“You can’t just break the locks,” Raven said, aghast. “It will compromise the systems in the whole Ark.”

“They think they can do it. They’ve been planning for this a long time. They think there will be acceptable losses and the Ark can be rebuilt, without the elite ruling class.”

“They are going to destroy the Ark,” Clarke said. “The Rebels and the Council both. They are going to kill us all with this fight.”

“What the hell can we do about it?” Bellamy said. Clarke realized for the first time that he was also carrying a weapon. He had taken it out against an enemy that was not actually present. 

“What about all those people in the vents? What about them? We can’t leave them wandering about in there. They could put us all at risk. Not to mention, there’s no way they can survive in there without being found out.”

“How many people did you get out of Factory, Finn?” Clarke asked.

“I don’t know. A bunch. Maybe 70 or 80.”

“Shit, Clarke.” Raven said. “We’re going to need our own Ark to get out of this mess,” Raven said. 

Bellamy snorted bitterly. “What about it Raven? You and Wick wanna build us an Ark out of spare machinery parts?” The Mechanic and the Engineer laughed back.

“We don’t need an Ark.” Clarke said, her heart beating fast. A plan in her head unfolding.

They all turned to her, recognizing something in her tone, an answer. A hope. “We need a drop ship.” They looked at her with varying degrees of confusion.

“I have a drop ship,” Harper said. They all turned their shocked gaze to Harper. “Well, I don’t have it. I work over in Aero, retrofitting the ships for shuttle travel. I mean, basically I just drive the lifts. I’m not actually a mechanic, but yeah. I know where it is. I have access.”

“What are we going to do with a drop ship, Clarke,” Bellamy stepped up to her, the gun still in his hand, like just holding it made him feel better. She put an hand on his forearm, guiding it down, to relax. He shook his head and tucked the gun back in his waistband. “Sorry,” he said, and raked his hand through his hair, making the curls stand. “We’re fucked. A drop ship isn’t going to help. Where are we going to go? Earth?”

More than one person in the group snickered at that. As far as they knew, Earth was a poisonous globe offering instant death for humans foolish enough to set foot there.

“Yes,” Clarke said. “We’re going to Earth.”


	18. Almost Certain Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They are really doing it. Risking almost certain death to escape to Earth. Crazy kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all. Neglecting my nanowrimo novel for you. Woot Woot.

Clarke was surprised by how little argument she got about taking the drop ship to earth. When she explained what she had found out through her research into Dr Gelfland’s work, everyone in the hydroponics lab was on board, even, she was surprised, Wells Jaha.

“Wells,” she said. “You don’t have to come with us. You can stay with your father, work with him, be an advocate for reason and the lower stations. You can do good here. No one even knows that you’ve been hanging out with us here, we’ve been sneaky about that at least.”

Wells shook his head sharply. “No. My father doesn’t listen to me. He’s so sure he has the answer to our problems, that his way is the only way to save the Ark, that he doesn’t listen to anyone. Maybe if I go to earth, not only will I be able to help the Ark by proving to them that the earth is habitable, but I… I don’t know, maybe it will snap my father out of this… state he’s in. And maybe, just maybe, I’ve been dreaming about the earth.”

“But you have a good life here. Wells. You have everything.”

Wells looked at her, his lips pressed together. “You’re saying this to me, Princess? You?”

Clarke blushed and ducked her head. “Sorry.”

“You know when I told you how I always think ‘what would Clarke think?’ Well, I can’t unsee what I’m missing. I can’t unfeel the lack of freedom. Or untaste the water that is generations of filtered pee.”

“That wasn’t me, that was Octavia.” He shot her a glare, but it got her thinking. “Whatever happened to that girlfriend? What was her name? Lily?”

Wells shook his head. “It didn’t work out. I wanted something more.”

“Are you saying she didn’t want to become the princess of Ark Station?”

“I’m saying I wanted more than what she could offer, a life in a tin can, a nice wife, a good job, high status going from box to box to box. I’ve been dreaming about the Earth. Wanting something I could never have.”

On some level, Clarke wondered if he wasn’t talking about her, about wanting her, but he didn’t stop there.

“And then you ran the research, you said I could have the Earth. You said it would work. All we need to do is the experiment. I don’t want The Ark anymore. I want the Earth.”

“Wells!” she looked at him in shock. “You had me put into Dr Gelfland’s project so that I could get you back to Earth. For this.”

“So you could get us back to Earth, yes. I didn’t expect all this to happen so soon, the rebellion, my dad, but I’ve been seeing the signs. I knew we needed to do something drastic. I’ve gotten Wick’s lunar station project green lighted too. I wasn’t going to put all my eggs in one basket, but with this war, the time table has been moved up and Earth is our best shot.”

“I suddenly feel very manipulated,” Clarke said. “Did you also somehow engineer my opening up an illicit clinic? Or my mother’s change in view point?”

“No to your clinic. That was all you. But you are the one that made me want to do something. And this is what I could do.”

“No to my clinic, but… yes to my mom?”

Wells shrugged. “I also green lighted the study on morale in Factory station after your clinic. They studied morale on all the lower stations, but I made sure they paid attention to the effects of your work. And I might have gotten Octavia in touch with your mom. I thought if she could talk to her, actually meet a second, she might think again about things. You know your mom works best person to person, individuals, patients. She doesn’t really do well with abstract concepts.”

“You’re the mastermind. You’ve been pulling strings all this while.” Clarke was amazed. She had always thought of him as so stiff and upright, but he’d been wearing this mask of the good son, and moving all the pieces around on the board. 

“Something had to be done. I didn’t know what avenue would work, so I sent people down different paths.”

“And you think you wouldn’t be a good chancellor…” Clarke said, amazed.

“I wouldn’t. I’m not good with people, with crowds, with inspiring others.” He looked up as Bellamy came through the access panel, Miller behind him. “He is though,” he nodded at Bellamy. 

Bellamy hauled a carry sack to the lab table. It was full of handguns. Miller put his sack down too. That one carried the special rounds that could stop a human but wouldn’t pierce the fragile metal of the Ark. Bellamy handed out a handgun to each of the delinquents. 

“I want you to be careful with these. You don’t want to get into a gun fight. Only take it out if you are in a life threatening situation.”

“Are you sure, Bellamy?” Clarke asked. “Guns?”

“The rebels on Factory aren’t the only rebels on this ship, Princess,” he said. “What we’re doing, it’s rebellion also. We may not be willing to risk anyone else’s lives but our own, but I’m sure the guard won’t really care about our noble motivations. You don’t have to use one if you don’t want to, but it’s better to have the option.”

Bellamy passed the guns out to everyone, and they accepted with varying levels of fear and excitement. He explained how they worked and how to handle them safely, and shook his head and turned to Clarke after everyone had hidden their guns in their waistbands.

“I’m heading to Kane, now. I’m going to tell him about the plot to blow up Alpha and ask for his help to get your mother out of skybox. We’re bringing her with us. Finn and Murphy will lead all the Factory refugees to the drop ship. You go with Harper to get them access and get all the refugees up to speed on what’s going on. I want you over there in charge of The 100, keeping it all locked down until we take off.”

“The hell I am,” Clarke said, standing up to him. “I’m going with you to see Kane and get my mother out.”

“No Clarke, it’s too dangerous. I can’t put you at risk.”

“It’s up to me to say what risks I will take.”

Bellamy looked up exasperated, “Wells, can you do something about this?” he said, trying to enlist the other man.

Wells simply smiled. “When Clarke has made up her mind, there’s nothing we can do.” Clarke thought that Wells might be smirking in a way that said, ‘she’s your problem now.’ “Oh,” he added. “If you need someone to to keep the 100 together until you get there, try Goggles.”

Jasper looked up. “What? Me?”

“Good plan,” Clarke said. “Jasper, you head over to the drop ship with Harper, she can get you in and wait for the refugees. Get them up to date. Tell them their alternatives. We don’t need to take anyone who doesn’t want to go. We want volunteers, but make sure they understand the risks they will be staying for.”

“Wait, Clarke. Wait. You should do that. It’s your project. You know what’s happening… and I don’t want you anywhere near this revolution business or jail break or Crazy Jaha.” Bellamy stopped, looked guilty at Wells. “Sorry, man.”

Wells shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. I’m the one who’s sorry.”

Clarke sighed and turned to Bellamy. “I’m being stupid,” she said.

“That’s right you are… wait— why do you think you’re being stupid?”

“I would be next to useless breaking my mom out of the skybox. Worse, I’d get in the way and make it obvious that someone was up to no good. I’m a wanted fugitive.”

Bellamy sighed in relief. “Good. That’s what I think, too. You need to stay safe with the drop ship.”

“No. Not that either.”

Bellamy frowned at her. “What are you planning?”

“You’re right, it’s my project. And it’s an important project. It’s not just about us escaping a war or punishment. It’s about making sure the earth is safe for humanity again. Making sure humanity is safe. It’s bigger than us.”

“I don’t like where this is going.”

“We all have a role to play. Bellamy, you and Miller go get my mom. You talk to Kane, warn him.”

“I will get the supplies we will need to survive on the ground.” Wells said. 

“How do you know what we’ll need?” Bellamy asked. 

Wells looked at Bellamy levelly. “Plan A was to keep The Ark stable. Plan B was to find ways to get humanity somewhere safe that wasn’t The Ark.”

Clarke watched as that information sat with Bellamy. Then he nodded once. “It’s a good thing someone was thinking ahead I guess. Charlotte, you take Wells through the vents where he needs to go.”

“And you, Clarke,” Bellamy asked, his brows pulled together in concern, “what is your mission?”

“I’m going to GoSci to get the medical equipment that we’ll need to monitor the subjects of our experiment.”

“No.” Bellamy said.

“Bell—“

“No. GoSci is crawling with guards. It’s where the fighting first broke out.”

“I’m going with her,” Octavia said. “I’ll take her through the vents and they’ll never find us. I’ve been in and out of GoSci more times than anyone.”

“It’s what needs to happen, Bellamy,” Clarke said. “It’s not just about us. It’s a matter of life and death for everyone on the Ark. Do you trust me?”

“I do,” he said, and pulled her into his arms. “Don’t take unnecessary risks,” he whispered into her hair.

“You either, Blake.” She grasped at him, as if by holding him tighter she could keep him safe. But they weren’t safe. None of them were safe. They wouldn’t be safe if they did nothing. They wouldn’t be safe if they hid. They wouldn’t be safe on their separate desperate missions trying to get ready to leave the Ark, and they wouldn’t be safe when they got to the ground.

“You know,” Octavia said, “There’s a good chance that we’re all going to die, right? It’s just a matter of how it happens.”

Clarke laughed. “There’s a 100% chance that we’re going to die, Octavia. That’s what it means to be alive, a certain death sentence. It just matters what you do while you’re still living it.”

“This is really happening, isn’t it?” Jasper said. He’d been staring at them since Wells had suggested him for his part of the mission.

“Yeah, it is. Are you okay with that?” Clarke asked. “This is a voluntary mission. Although for some of us, the alternative is being floated.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jasper said. “We’re going to Earth! Earth! We might die in a fiery crash or hail of bullets or get sucked out into space, it's almost certain death, but hell yeah! We’re going to Earth!”

The delinquents stared at each other across the lab table. Smiles broke out. Terrified, excited smiles. 

“All right,” Bellamy said. “Everybody clear on their task?” They all nodded. “Good. Head out. And one other thing. We’re probably all going to die, but lets try to wait until we get to Earth to do it, okay?” They laughed. The group dispersed through the vents.

Before Clarke went through, Bellamy pulled her back. “Clarke,” he said, “I need you to promise me to be careful. If it comes down to a choice between getting those medical instruments and getting yourself and O back to the drop ship, let them go and get yourselves back to me. We need you. Okay?”

Clarke surged into him. She kissed him soundly on the lips before pulling back, her hands on either side of his face, staring into his eyes. “You make me the same promise, Bellamy Blake. If it’s a question between you and my mom,” she inhaled sharply, hating herself but being unable to stop the truth, “you come back to me. I need you.”

“I love you, Princess,” he said.

She fisted her hand into his guard’s uniform. “Prove it,” she said. “Don’t die.”

“Blake!” Miller called from the vents. 

Bellamy kissed her once more on the lips, briefly, and then disappeared into the shadows. Clarke took a deep breath, and then slid into the vents herself.


	19. Until We Meet Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke is intent on making sure that the radiation tests will actually work to save humanity. She encounters some unexpected help along the way, and gets to say goodbye

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting this right now because, even though I think it could use a touch more editing, it's been a while since I've posted, and I still have a novel to work on tomorrow. Fair warning, I may go in and tighten it up a little bit after publication. 
> 
> I just felt like I needed to move the story forward, no matter how busy the day and how blocky the block is trying to get.

When Clarke got to her office to raid GoSci for the supplies they would need for the radiation experiment, her father was there waiting for her.

“Dad!” she cried. He looked pale. Gray even. And he slumped in her desk chair. She could tell there were bandages underneath his hospital gown.

She rushed over to him, wanting to examine him, to see for herself that he was okay, that he would live. Instead she stood in front of him, her hands half way to his bandages, frozen. “Wait. What are you doing here?”

He huffed a laugh and shook his head once. “I know you, Clarke. Do you think I couldn’t follow your train of thought down the only path you had available for you to take? You’re going to earth, aren’t you?”

“How did you know?” Octavia said as she climbed out of the duct behind Clarke.

“She already petitioned for a test subject to earth. And her mother said she would need more than one test subject. And I told her about the drop ship. Clearly, now that she’s wanted, her mother’s in jail and the ark is about to self destruct, this is her only course of action.”

“You Griffins, man. I do not want to be on the wrong side of you,” Octavia said, looking at him in awe. And then, being Octavia, she nodded to the crates that were waiting next to Jake’s feet. “What’s all that?”

“The tech she’ll need to monitor the radiation tests.”

“You mean, to tell the Ark if we can live down there or if we are going to die a horrible, painful death.”

Jake looked at Octavia. He pursed his lips and nodded.”Yeah. Basically.”

“Come with us, Dad,” Clarke said, rushing forward finally so he could wrap his arms around her and she could feel him. Alive.

He shook his head. “I can’t Clarke. I’m just this side of death. You think I can’t tell? I know you can tell. They’ve got me so full of meds I can barely see straight. And I need them to survive. If I go down to earth, it doesn’t matter if we can handle the radiation, I will die without advanced medical care.” He hugged her tightly and she wanted to hug him back but she could feel the weakness in his arms. And she was afraid to hug him, even to the extent of her own strength. Could he even survive the drop ship? Tears leaked out of her eyes.

Jake pulled her back so he could look at her. She flinched at his gaze. It was so full of pain. What was it taking him just to speak with her. “I have to stay here. The hospital will make sure I get better. Jackson has taken over my care and he was trained by your mother. He knows what he’s doing. You are going to earth, Clarke.”

“Dad,” Clarke said. She couldn’t stop the tears now. She couldn’t even see through them.

“I’m going to stay here. I’m going to get better. And I’m going to work on the Ark to stay in communication with you and the 100 subjects you take down with you.”

“How did you know I have one hundred subjects?”

“Because your mother said that’s how many you needed for your test to be accurate. So that’s what you’ll get. I don’t need to know the details. It’s probably best if I know as little as possible, because when Jaha discovers that you’ve taken the drop ship, he’s going to come for me first.”

“Dad!” Clarke said. She didn’t know why that was all she seemed to be able to say. She was choked up. Other words wouldn’t come.

“Don’t worry, Clarke. I have people on my side. Sergeant Miller is on the other side of the door. He’s supposed to be escorting me to engineering for something very official and necessary.”

“Miller? Dad. His son is coming with us.”

Jake nodded. She could see him making connections in his head. “Good. You’re going to need him. But Clarke, I need you to do something for me, or at least try.”

“What is it?”

He took a big breath as if this was going to take all of his strength, then turned to Clarke. “I know you don’t always agree with your mom, but you have to try to bring her to Earth with you. Jaha has gone crazy and he wants to float her for exceeding medical rations and saving my life. I can’t let that happen, Clarke. She did it to save me.” His eyes grew wet. She was horrified. She’d never seen her father cry. He was always so cheerful and realistic. Never sentimental.

Clarke shook her head. “It’s already done, dad. Bellamy has gone to get her out of the Skybox. With Marcus Kane. He is going to take her to the drop ship.”

“Ah!” Jake exclaimed. “I did not see that coming.” He smiled. “Bellamy Blake.” He looked at Octavia, who had been standing there, silent. “You were right, Octavia Blake. He is the best of men.” Octavia raised her head, proudly. “And you are the best of women.” He nodded at her, and the weight of that nod, made a tear roll down her cheek. “You will take care of my Clarke?”

Octavia shook her head. “I think she’s taking care of me, sir.”

His eyes definitely filled with tears at that. His smile hurt Clarke’s heart. “I think you’ll take care of each other. Don’t be so hard on your mother, Clarke. It takes her a little longer to get where you’re going, sometimes.”

“Okay, dad.” Clarke said, and rested her head on his shoulder.

“So, Bellamy?” he said.

“I love him, and he loves me.”

“I think… I think he will be good for you, and you will be good for him.” He smiled. “And you’re going to Earth, and you’re not only going to survive, there, you’re going to thrive. You’re going to prove to us that we can live on the ground and I’m going to stay up here and find us a way to get down to you. You’re going to save humanity, Clarke.”

Clarke couldn’t help but laugh. “And I just wanted to open a clinic.”

“The universe had bigger plans for you.” 

A quiet rapping came at the door.

“Ah. That’s Sergeant Miller. Our time is up. I have to move on to Engineering before someone gets suspicious. Take the bins. Get a wrist band on each of the 100. It will send information to the computers about all of your vital signs. There’s also a communicator in there that should be able to speak directly to engineering, as long as conditions are right.” He gasped then.

Clarke stood and held her hands out to him as if she could stop his pain.

“No, no, Clarke. I’m just…Well, I’m recovering from being shot in the gut. I told you, honey. I can’t come with you. At this point, I’m not sure I could walk back to the hospital without help.”

“I can’t leave you like this.”

His eyes turned sharp. “That is exactly what you are going to do. You have a part to play in this, and so do I. You do your job and I’ll do mine. Take the tech and get out of here. Get on the drop ship. You’re going to Earth, Clarke.”

Octavia had already picked up a couple of bins and headed back to the air vent.

“But you need medical attention.”

He nodded. “This is for you. I love you.” He unfastened his watch and buckled it onto her wrist, then held her hand for what felt like too short a time. “Live your life and love it, Clarke.” He said, “Call Miller in.” He said, and then pulled her to him for one last hug. She left tears on his neck. “Go, now.”

She nodded and let go of her father. Knocking quietly on the door and calling, “Count to twenty, and then come get him.”

Two short raps on the door were her answer. 

She picked up the bins and headed towards the vent, stopping before she stepped through. She turned back to her father. “Until we meet again,” she said.

He nodded slowly, his eyes meeting hers. “Until we meet again, Clarke.”

Clarke stepped into the shadows and closed the vent behind her.


	20. Ready

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarke gets back to the drop ship, ready to take her delinquents to Earth? But where are Bellamy, Miller and Abby? Still on their way.
> 
> Will Bellamy reach them before Diana Sydney and her rebel army, who want to take the drop ship for themselves?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I'd had more time, I would have given you a shorter chapter. But I promised a chapter this weekend, so...

Octavia led her through the vents, again. For the last time, she thought, in shock. This was it. She was done with the Ark. They were. Soon they would be walking on earth again. Maybe soon they would be dead. It was still not a certain thing that they would survive, either the Ark, the drop, or the radiation.

They made it to Aero, to the loading bay for the drop ship. “Clarke! Thank god,” Jasper said, speaking out loud the relief on everyone’s face. “Do you know how long it’s been? I’m about to have a heart attack.”

“I brought the tech we need for the radiation test. Are we ready to take off?”

“The drop ship is all set to go,” Harper said, her face anxious.

“What?” Clarke asked. “What’s wrong?” She looked at them all. “Wait. Where’s Bellamy?”

Raven shook her head. “He’s not back yet. We’re still waiting for them. But it’s okay. We knew it was going to take some time. He had to go to Kane first and then they had to get your mom out of the skybox. We’re still on schedule. Don’t worry.”

Clarke closed her eyes and inhaled deeply to calm her racing heart. To try and convince herself that everything was still going according to plan, despite the rapidly growing fear, blooming in her chest. Another deep breath. “Right. We’re on schedule. We’ll just get everything ready and when they get here, we can go.”

Wells came out of the drop ship. “The supplies are all stowed on board,” he said then stopped. “Clarke, you’re back. That took less time than I thought it would. Are those bins the tech you needed?”

Clarke nodded. “It turns out, I wasn’t the first person to think we’d need it. My father was there. He packed up the equipment and was waiting for me.”

Wells shook his head in amazement. “Is he okay?”

“Not really. I tried to get him to come with us, but he said he still needed the medical treatment or he’d die.”

Wells looked at her then, really looked at her, and strode across the bay towards her. In three steps, he wrapped her up in his arms. “He’ll be okay. We need him up here to run the diagnostics anyway. When we prove that the Earth is survivable, he will meet us on the ground. Okay?”

Clarke sniffled and wiped away the tear that threatened to leak out of her eyes. She had no time for tears. She had no time for comfort. She pushed Wells away.

“Right. I need people to get the wrist bands on everyone in the drop ship. It might hurt a little, but they should click right into place.” Clarke opened up the bin and took one of the wristbands out. “See? Should be really easy. Press here,” she showed them the little button on the side, slightly under the band. “This will open them without damaging them. Don’t force them.” She pressed the button and it popped open, then she pressed it onto her wrist and it compressed around her. She hissed. “Yeah. It stings.” 

“I can do it, Clarke,” Finn said, eagerly. He took the bin from her and held it like an offering. 

“I’ll help. Make sure the tech is all working,” Wick said, his lips twisted in a mistrustful line. 

“The activation equipment and the com unit is in this bin,” Clarke handed Wick the next bin. “But lets wait to turn on the readers until we get the drop ship away from the Ark, okay?”

“Good idea. It won’t take that long,” Wick said. “We got this.”

“You can trust us,” Finn said. 

“Good.” Clarke said and turned away from Finn’s earnest look. 

“Come on, lover boy, let’s go,” Wick said, and nudged Finn back onto the ship. Clarke caught Raven’s look and they both rolled their eyes. 

Raven walked over to her, with her normal swagger. She was wearing her tool belt, and she always felt more in control when she had her tool belt. “Are you packing, Clarke?” Raven asked. 

“Packing? Finn and Wick took the tech. I assume they will be doing the packing.”

Raven rolled her eyes. “No, I mean a gun?”

“Oh,” Clarke blushed. “Sorry. I’m not used to firearms. But yeah. Bellamy had me take one of the guns. I don’t know if I’ll be of much use. I mean, I haven’t done more than just the rec center target shooting when I was a kid and that was just for fun.”

“That’s something though. It’s good. It’s just for if we need it.”

“God, I hope we don’t need it. What kind of situation would it be if we needed to shoot someone? Jaha found us and was getting ready to send us to the skybox for hijacking the drop ship?”

“No skybox, Clarke. He’d float us all. Did you forget about his policy change on crime? Every crime is a capital crime.”

A shiver went down her spine. “How could I forget. Where’s Bellamy? We need him back here so we can take off. You sure the ship’s ready to go, Harper?”

“All we’re waiting on is our last few passengers.”

“Right. Maybe the rest of us should get on board, then we can just go as soon as they get here.”

Harper nodded, getting ready to guide the rest of them onto the drop ship and the seats waiting for them to be strapped down.

“Uh, Clarke?” Monty said, a worried tone in his voice.

“Oh no, what is it?”

“We’ve got company.”

“Please say it’s Bellamy and my mom.”

“I’d love to but it’s not. Not unless Bellamy is bringing an army.”

Everyone turned to Monty. Clarke rushed up to him and looked at his screen. “That’s Diana Sydney.”

“How did she get out of Factory? I thought the section was still locked off.”

“Next to her. I know him. It’s John Mbege. He was with the refugees from Factory that Finn brought in. They were friends, but he was friends with Dax, too.” Octavia said. “Mbege double crossed us.”

“What do we do?” Jasper asked.

“Maybe she’ll let us go,” Harper suggested, the hope painful in her voice.

Octavia snorted. “You don’t know Diana Sydney very well, do you? I watch things and I’ve watched her. Diana loves nothing so much as power. She’s not going to want to let us get away. She wants everything. She wants to control it all and if she can’t control it, she wants it gone. She was ready to assassinate you, Clarke, for the crime of opening a clinic and giving people hope. For messing up her plans. Do you really think she’s going to let you float down to a great big uninhabited planet and take it for yourself?”

“But as far as she knows, the Earth is deadly! The radiation levels are still high enough to kill humans almost immediately.”

“Except you forget that Diana Sydney is on the council and she’s read your original report and all your findings about radiation levels and our genetically engineered resistance to radiation. How much do you want to bet that she’s not willing to risk giving you control over a whole planet.”

“But I don’t own the planet. We just want to survive.”

“Diana Sydney doesn’t think about things like that, Clarke. It’s eat or be eaten with her. She learned her lessons from the lower stations, and here she is on top.”

“We’ve got to defend the drop ship. We’ve got to keep it out of their hands.”

“I can transfer controls of the drop ship from the control room to the nav system inside," Monty said, "I mean, they’re not really advanced computers on the drop ship, but I can link it to my tablet and disengage the drop ship from the Ark from there. But it’s going to take me a little bit of time.”

“Good. Do that. Get everybody we can on board the drop ship. Get them buckled in. We need to be ready to go right now.”

“Those doors will keep Diana Sydney out. They are meant to withstand reentry. There’s nothing she can throw at the closed drop ship doors that will get her in.” Raven pointed out. “We can all just get in and there’s nothing she can do about it. Once the doors are closed, they are closed.”

“But—“ Jasper said and looked around, his mouth gaping.

“But Bellamy.” Clarke finished for him. “And Miller. And my mom.”

“The hell if we’re leaving Bellamy behind. That is not going to happen.” Octavia glared at them all. If that bitch Sydney wants a fight, we’ll give her a fight.”

“Well we do have their guns,” Raven said.

“But they have an army,” Monty said, doubtfully.

“We just have to hold them off until Bellamy and the others get back. Monty, do you have any eyeballs on Bellamy?” Clarke asked

He looked at his tablet, flipping through it. “No. I can’t see them. But I can also see that Dr Griffin’s cell is empty. They got her out.”

“That must mean they are on their way. Unless something happened. But we have to hope that nothing happened. So they’ll be coming through the vents. Octavia, do you know which vent Bellamy will take?”

“I don’t know. The more direct route lets out in the hallway, but Diana Sydney will probably get there before Bellamy does. The more difficult route lets out in the bay, right over there, but it’s tricky, because this bay is built to be air locked. It all depends upon if Bellamy goes for speed, or stealth. And if everyone is in a good enough condition for the climb.”

“He would never come out of the vents if he saw or heard Diana Sydney’s army in the halls. He’d take an alternate route.”

“Of course, but if he does that, it will take him twice as long. And the rebels will get here first and we will have to fight and they will win, Clarke. We don’t have their numbers.”

“Fuck.” Clarke looked around at her friends. Friends who liked to sit around and drink moonshine and make jokes. And here they were stealing a drop ship and going to Earth, getting ready for an actual battle. “So if he went the short route, we’ve already lost them.” 

Octavia looked at her, her face fierce, and angry. “We hold off Diana Sydney. I know him. He took the stealthy route. We give him time.”

“I’ve shut down navigation from the control room, Clarke.” Monty said. “I can control it all from my tablet now.”

“Good. Monty, get strapped in on the drop ship. We need to keep you away from Diana Sydney. Raven, Barricade the bay doors,” Clarke said. Raven nodded, dragging Jasper with her.

“We’ll rig something, maybe give them a little surprise,” she grinned the evil grin that she had earned growing up in the lower stations. She looked around the bay, with all it’s mechanical parts and construction tools. “This place is a scrap metal dream.”

“Harper, can you give us some cover here? So we’re not just sitting ducks if they break through the barricade?”

“You got it boss,” Harper said and grinned as she leapt into a lift and moved it easily into place, right in front of the drop ship door, blocking a direct line of sight from the bay door, and not incidentally the line of gunfire.

“We stand firm. Until we can’t hold her off anymore. Then we leave,” Clarke said, speaking over the lump in her throat. A muscle ticked in Octavia’s jaw. “He will be fine. He’s working with Kane. Kane will protect him.”

“Protect him from being floated? He and Miller broke your mom out of the skybox.”

“They’ll figure it out.”

“What about the Ark, Clarke?” Wells asked.

“What do you mean?”

“What’s the point of proving that the Earth is survivable if Diana Sydney destroys the Ark and kills everybody who stands in her way. We’ll be safe, but this was never just about us.”

Clarke looked at Wells. “We need to kill Diana Sydney.”


	21. Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diana Sydney wants to negotiate.   
> Bellamy still isn't there.

“Come on, Bellamy, where are you?” Clarke asked the empty air. She ducked her head into the drop ship. “Have you seen him anywhere yet, Monty?”

“Sorry, Clarke. He’s not on any of the security cameras. He’s staying out of sight.”

“Damn.” She cursed, even though she knew that was good and that he had probably taken the stealthy route back to the bay, even though it meant she had no idea when he would show up.

“Clarke Griffin!” the call came again. Diana Sydney was on the other side of the door to the bay. “We need to talk. I have a proposition for you.”

“You tried to have me killed. Why should I talk to you?”

“Because we share many goals. You and I, we know this Ark is broken. We want to fix it.”

“You want to destroy it.”

“Sometimes you have to clear the decks so you can build anew.”

“Yeah, those decks have people on them. They don’t want to be cleared.”

“Let me in. We can negotiate.”

“You want my drop ship.”

“I want to be a part of this move to Earth.”

“We may all die.”

“We may be the key to keeping everyone alive. I don’t want to be your enemy here, Dr Griffin.”

Clarke looked at her friends. They all held their guns at the ready. 

“Let me in to negotiate, or I will have to conclude that you are my enemy and there is no negotiation with the enemy and we will blow our way in.”

Clarke narrowed her eyes, looking around at her friends, who were all looking to her. Octavia shook her head tightly, telling her not to do it. She knew that Octavia didn’t trust Diana Sydney, but Clarke didn’t trust her either. This wasn’t about trust, it was about saving the Ark. Right now, Diana was the biggest danger to every last human on the Ark, and she wanted to keep them all safe.

“Okay. But only you.” Clarke called.

“Unacceptable. I am not stupid. Me and my two guards.”

Clarke nodded. Octavia gaped at her, but Wells headed to the bay door to open it, letting in Diana and two hulking guards.

“Dax,” Octavia spat.

The first guard looked at her and grinned. It was a dangerous grin. “Octavia. I knew you and your brother were hiding the princess.”

“And I know you are with Bellamy Blake, Dr Griffin. This is how I know we have a common ground for our negotiations. The Blakes are my people.”

A rage filled Clarke, she didn’t know where it was coming from. “Wrong, Diana. The Blakes are my people.”

Diana laughed. When she laughed, her face lit up and she was truly beautiful. Her smile beamed out and welcomed everyone. For the first time, she saw the charm that had convinced half of the lower stations to follow her. 

“You think the Blakes, second family, the lowest, are yours? You’re the princess of the Ark, the elite, Alpha station, ranking doctors, Council members, intended to rule? They are nothing on the Ark.”

“You’re wrong, Sydney.” The deep voice came from behind them. Clarke refused to turn around to see Bellamy, to turn her back on Diana Sydney. But the relief washed over her in a flood. She could suddenly breathe. The plan had suddenly changed.

“We’re the Blakes, and we belong to Clarke.” He came up to stand next to Clarke. He didn’t take her hand, she knew he was ready to draw his weapon. He just stood next to her, but it was enough. “And Clarke belongs to us. These are our people, and you are a threat to us.”

Clarke took a deep breath, turned to him, and put a hand on Bellamy’s chest. “Bellamy. It’s okay. I want to negotiate with her. We can do this.” She took the opportunity to look over his shoulder and see Miller standing there, her mother, thinner than she’d ever been, next to him. She looked at Bellamy and smiled.

He narrowed his eyes at her, suspiciously. She nodded, ever so slightly. He nodded back, almost imperceptibly.

She turned back to Diana Sydney. “Fine. Let’s negotiate, just the two of us. No guards. I don’t like him.” She nodded at Dax, who bared his teeth at her.

“Again, you continue to treat me like I am stupid. You have weapons, which look familiar by the way.”

“They should, they used to be yours.” Clarke grinned, showing her teeth. “But I’ll get rid of the gun.” She took the gun out of her waistband and handed it to Bellamy, he gave her a warning look, and the look she returned to him was direct. It said, ‘be ready.’ She held up her arms and took a slow spin. “See? Unarmed. Now you do the same.” 

She handed the gun from her holster to Dax. And then spun slowly, her hands in the air. 

“Underneath her shirt. In her waistband,” Octavia said. Octavia was a watcher. She saw things others didn’t.

Diana Sydney glared at the second and removed the gun from her waistband. Octavia smiled back. Her teeth looked very white.

“Satisfied?” 

Clarke nodded. She gestured to the older woman to follow her to the side of one of the lifts they had parked throughout the bay. “Your guards can see you. My people can see me. Fair?”

Diana Sydney shot her a sour look but followed. 

“What do you want from us?” Clarke asked.

“I want my people to go down with you. I want us to be part of the first people to reach Earth, to colonize. I want to claim my part of the Earth.”

“This is a research mission,” Clarke said. “We’re not planning on claiming anything.”

“Don’t be naive. Whoever reaches Earth first will rule.”

“Do you know how big the Earth is? There’s plenty of room for your people to have your own continent if that’s what you want.”

“Nevertheless, I want my captains to go with you.”

“Dax? No way. I won’t take men who beat women because they can.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I have others. I have women captains.”

Clarke nodded. “I can do that. We still have room. But I have demands too.”

“What?” Sydney didn’t trust her, she knew that. She didn’t care. What mattered was how Sydney answered her request.

“I want you to spare Alpha Station. I want you to spare all the stations. Stop the war.”

“No. That’s not happening. They must die for the oppression they have participated in. It is the only way to right the wrongs of the Ark.”

“No. You can’t sacrifice innocent people for your cause. I won’t allow it.”

Sydney laughed. It wasn’t the beautiful laugh of before with the stunning charismatic smile. She looked down her nose at Clarke. “I should have known. You and your clinics,” she scoffed. “You’re too soft. We live in the void. We don’t have the luxury of being soft. Sacrifices must be made for the greater good.”

“You might be right about that,” Clarke said, and glanced over at Bellamy for the slightest of seconds. She saw him tense. “But not the innocents.” And with that, she sliced Diana Sydney’s jugular vein with the scalpel she had kept in her sleeve ever since she had opened up her clinic on Factory station. 

Diana Sydney’s eyes bulged and she goggled at her in silence. Blinking. Too stunned to make a noise. 

“To the drop ship!” Clarke shouted, diving behind the lift as Diana Sydney crumpled to the ground, dying.


	22. Stumble. Fall.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone she loves is in danger. Clarke has to get them all in the drop ship and the drop ship to earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BOOM!

Shots rang out. One pinged off of the lift by Clarke’s head. She stumbled behind it, covering her head.

She had just killed someone. A perfectly healthy vibrant human being, someone willing to kill innocents for her own ends. But she couldn’t think about it. Her life was in danger and so were the lives of almost everyone she loved. 

They had to get to the drop ship.

She ran behind the lift, safe from gunshots, but the sounds of the guns going off and bullets pinging off of the walls of the bay made panic rise in her throat. 

“No!” she heard Wells shout, and Clarke stood, afraid for her oldest friend, needing to see what was happening.

Wells was at the door to the bay, tackling the second guard to the ground, but it was too late. The door was open and Diana Sydney’s army was in.

“Dammit!” Bellamy said. “Get to the drop ship, go! Go!” He fired his gun at the door. So did Harper, and Raven, and Jasper. They had left no lifts around the door for cover, so everyone coming in was easy to pick off. “Go, Clarke!” He yelled, and chanced a glance at her, before shooting a woman who peeked around the door to get a shot off. She screamed and fell to the ground in the doorway.

Clarke had no gun, she’d given hers to Bellamy. She had to get to the ship while they were still covering the door. She looked around and made a dash for the drop ship, stopping at a crate right by the entrance, where Raven was, her hand gun trained on the door. “Come on Raven. In the drop ship.”

“No,” she started arguing, “I’ve got to cover—“ but both of them had to stop and stare as Miller and Abby tried to make run for the drop ship. Too late, they saw the gunman, using his fallen comrade as a shield, aim for the only available target. Miller pushed Abby to the ground and took the shot, right to the chest.

“Miller!” Clarke screamed, and ran to him, ignoring the gunshots.

“Fuck!” she heard Bellamy yell, and start shooting, but she had no time to look. She was at Miller, gasping on the ground, his hand clutching at his wound. 

“Shit. That hurts,” he said. And coughed, wincing.

Abby scurried up to Clarke. “Come on, we have to get him on the drop ship, now,” she said. 

“He’s been shot!” Clarke said, shocked. Dammit. He couldn’t die.

“Yes. And we need to get him to the drop ship so we can treat him and not get shot also.”

“Right. I have my kit on board.” She said, remembering herself. Becoming a doctor again.

“Go, Clarke!” Bellamy shouted. “We’ll cover you,” and their return fire rang out. From all around her, their friends were defending them so they could get Miller to safety.

She and her mom helped Miller to his feet, one of them under each of his shoulders. They ran as fast as they could the short distance to the drop ship door. She gasped with relief when they finally made it inside, safe behind the impenetrable walls. Raven came in right behind her. And she could see Wells only a few steps behind her. 

“Nathan!” Monty said, from where he sat, already strapped in to his seat, a wrist band tight on his arm and his tablet almost dropping from his limp fingers. “Is he okay?”

“He will be,” Clarke said, as she watched her mother rip open his shirt. 

“Your kit, Clarke!” Suddenly Octavia was there, a gun in her hand, reaching behind a containment panel for the medical kit that she had been in charge of now for months. She opened it up and started handing Abby instruments and supplies, without even needing instruction. 

Rather Octavia looked over her shoulder at Clarke, “Get him in the drop ship, Clarke.” Then she went back to helping Abby with Miller. There was no reason to discuss which him she meant.

She nodded. “You get him stabilized for the trip. Monty, I want this ship ready to drop at a moments notice. Sydney’s army is trying to take it, they’re all over the level and they want our ship. They will kill everyone to get it.”

“Right.” Monty said, his jaw firming. “Jasper’s still out there.”

“So is Bellamy.” She went back to the door, scooping up Octavia’s gun on the way. 

“It’s almost out of bullets Clarke, hurry.” Octavia spared a glance at her.

Clarke was at the door. Jasper and Harper were there, pinned down only a few feet from her. 

“We’re out,” Jasper said to her as he ducked behind the crate they were covering behind, his arms trying to shield Harper from the bullets. 

“Now,” she told him, nodding to him, and she fired at the rebels aiming for them. They jumped up and scampered for the door, gasping. Harpers brown work overalls were stained with red.

“You’re shot,” Clarke said.

Harper shook her head. “It’s nothing. Later. Get us out of here.” Her voice was shaky but she went unerringly towards an empty drop seat. Buckling herself in, struggling with her arm that didn’t seem to want to move. Jasper helped her.

Clarke turned back to the door.

“Bellamy!” She called.”Get in here! I’ll cover you!”

She leaned out of the door and started shooting. Bellamy looked back and saw her, nodding, running for the door. On the other side of the door, Wells took a stand, with his own gun. Shooting at the rebels.

Bellamy was almost there, almost safe, when Dax tackled him to the floor.

“Bellamy!” Clarke screamed, and shot, trying to scare Dax off. But she knew she wasn’t a good enough shot. She couldn’t risk hitting Bellamy. Dax slammed Bellamy to the ground, pounding his head into the hard tiled floors. 

From behind her, she heard Raven. “The rebels are in the doors. I’ve only got the one charge, I have to make it worthwhile.”

And she was right. Now that they were all in the ship and not shooting anymore, the rebel army was filling the Bay. They would be here in seconds.

“Blow it,” Clarke said. 

Raven nodded holding her trigger up, and Clarke called out once, in warning, “Bellamy!” before the explosion by the door blew. 

Dax was knocked off of Bellamy, but Bellamy lay there dazed, his head rolling. “Bellamy!” Clarke called. “Get up!”

“We’ve got to close the doors, Clarke, the explosion won’t hold them back. It didn’t cause a blockade.” Raven said, peering through the smoke now filling the bay.

“Bellamy!” Clarke cried, before Wells took off through the door towards Bellamy.

“Wells!” Her terror filled her. Bellamy and Wells both out there. In danger, and the rebels boiling through the door, so many! All armed. Wells grabbed Bellamy by the shirt and hauled him to his feet. Bullets started pinging again, through the smoke. Clarke aimed her gun behind them firing once and the the gun clicked, empty.

“Dammit, Monty, the doors,” she sobbed. “Close the doors!” 

“It’s done, Clarke,” Monty said, his voice broken. The ramp to the bay started lifting as it closed.

Wells and Bellamy stumbled through the smoke, the gunfire. “Hurry!” she shouted.

And then Bellamy was in the ship, falling into her arms. Wells was there, too, but before he could step into the drop ship, Dax was on him, knocking him to the ground. 

“Wells! NO!” But it was too late. Bellamy was barely able to stand and the door had raised so far that she couldn’t even see Wells anymore, just heard the grunts and punches of him being beaten. “No!” The weight of Bellamy in her arms and her sorrow in losing Wells dragged her to her knees.

Then someone was scrabbling at the ramp, near the top. A hand. A leg finding purchase. And Wells rolled down the ramp/door as it finally clamped shut, closing the drop ship, impenetrable, ready for it’s flight through the atmosphere.

“Wells!” Clarke cried, relieved, unable to stop the tears. She wanted to get up and go to him, but Bellamy was still in her arms, a dead weight. It was Octavia who ran to check on Wells.

“Are you okay?” Octavia asked, her hands all over his shoulders, neck, head.

“I’m fine,” he said. “I’m fine. Check Bellamy.”

“He’s got a concussion,” Clarke said, her fingers exploring his head, relieved to not find anything worse after seeing the way Dax was slamming him into the floor. “Bell, Bell… can you hear me?”

“Princess,” he said, his words slurring, his eyes fluttering. He grabbed at her arm, but his grip was weak.

“Not to put pressure on you guys,” Raven said, “But we’ve got to take off. Their guns can’t penetrate the hull, but there’s no guarantee they don’t have explosives that couldn’t blow us all to crap. We don’t want to give them time to get that going.”

“Right. Someone help me strap him into his seat.”

Wells climbed to his feet, clearly favoring one leg, and hauled Bellamy off of Clarke. Bellamy stumbled along as Wells dragged him the few feet to his seat. Clarke fastened Bellamy in. “Everybody buckle up,” she called, and suddenly she was the only one not in a seat.

“Stop yelling, princess,” Bellamy said. “You’re giving me a headache. Sit down. Let’s get this show on the road.”

She laughed, relieved, and sat next to him. Buckling her seat with shaking fingers. She turned to look at Monty, sitting next to her on the other side. 

“Are we ready, Monty?”

Monty was pale. He clutched his tablet. “I closed off this section Clarke. I didn’t want them to be able to bring in reinforcements.”

“That’s smart. Good. You might have saved us.”

He showed her the tablet. It was set to watch the drop ship bay, which was now full of the rebel army. They were bringing in things. Materials. They looked like construction materials.

“Yup,” raven was looking from a couple seats over. “Those are charges. They’re going to try to blow the door.”

“But Clarke. If I hit this button here, when we take off, everything on this side of the sealed section will be sucked out into space. Air. People. Charges. All of it that’s not nailed down.” Clarke’s eyebrows shot up into her forehead.

“The rebel army,” Clarke said.

“Any of them on this side of the seal. Half of them went to Alpha though. I’ve been keeping track of the movement.”

“Even without Diana Sydney,” she said. He nodded. “They are going to destroy the Ark.”

“It will be a lot harder without half their army, Clarke,” Bellamy said. She looked at him, his eyes that had trouble focusing, but he still understood. He reached out and took her hand. “We can save people.”

“By killing people.” Clarke said. He nodded. “What about civilians?” she asked.

“This part of Aero is just bays and construction hangars.” Harper said, holding onto her shoulder and grimacing. “And with the lock down from the rebels, everyone is on curfew in their homes. Shifts have been suspended. There’s no one here but delinquents and rebels.”

“Hurry up, Clarke,” Raven said, “Or they’ll kill us first. Do it.”

She looked around at the drop ship, at all of her friends looking at her. Some of them bleeding and battered. Miller, patched up with gauze. Her mother, next to him with bloody hands and a determined face, “Do it.” They were all with her. 

She nodded. “But not you, Monty.” And took his tablet from him. “I will do it.” She looked at him and pointed. “This button?” he nodded. 

She looked over at Bellamy. His mouth pressed in a firm line. He nodded. 

“Here we go, folks. Hold on.” She hit the button. 

There was a grinding noise, and then it stopped. She looked around at everyone, and they looked around too.

“It’s okay,” Harper said. “The mechanics can be a little creaky at first. This is supposed to—“ The drop ship lurched. She could hear screams from the upper levels. 

Clarke took a glance at the tablet and saw the rebels stumbling about in the bay.

Then the engines fired up with a woosh. The drop ship vibrated underneath them and suddenly tilted and fell. Her stomach swooped into her throat. Gravity failed as they uncoupled from the grav-links. They were weightless. Clarke looked at the tablet, too late to see it happening, it was that quick, and saw a bay, swept clean. The rebels, the crates, the lifts, they were all now space litter as their drop ship broke away and the nav system took over. 

The tablet blinked out. Feed gone. Too far from the Ark to link up. Clarke took a deep breath. Then felt Bellamy’s hand in hers.

“Are you okay, Bellamy?” She asked, concerned. Her eyes trying to examine his injuries from a distance because she was buckled in and couldn’t get any closer to him.

“I’ll be okay, Clarke. I’ve had worse.” His smile was fierce, intimate. She remembered the first time she met him, after he got beaten to a pulp in the gladiator games. He squeezed her hand.

“We’re going to Earth, Clarke,” he whispered fiercely and she returned his smile, “We’re going to Earth!” he said it again, loud and ringing, his words echoed through the drop ship. 

The delinquents cheered as they fell through space heading home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They all live. Fooled you.   
> THEY!   
> ALL!   
> LIVE!   
> MUAHAHAHAHA.
> 
> except for diana sydney and dax and they get what they deserve. ;)


	23. Not Delinquents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The drop ship touches down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These characters are no longer the kids they were in the first episode. Clarke isn't the know it all from solitary, Bellamy isn't the guy who thought he killed Jaha, Wells is the behind the scenes mastermind, not the pining boy, and he's made sure the trip is supplied. Monty is a computer engineer. Miller is a guard. Harper is a tech. They have the head of medical with them. Even Finn isn't the spacewalker, he's an earth skills teacher who saved dozens of people from Factory (that's the first time I haven't written Finn as a jerk). Not being teenage delinquents changes the landing in a million ways. They all chose this trip. They weren't forced into it. 
> 
> I had to work through these changes, even though I feel like if I were writing a novel, I would have taken this chapter out, because it doesn't further development. You get to see what happens before they open the drop ship hatch. Think of it as an out take. The next chapter should be the one that I really wanted to write. I hope.

Clarke gripped Bellamy’s hand the entire way down, knowing that it could all go wrong at any minute. One hundred plus year old ships were always one clink away from breaking down. When the thrusters came on, slowing their descent into the atmosphere, their eyes met, the g forces pressing them into their seats.

“The chutes will deploy any minute now,” Monty told them. 

“Hold on folks!” Bellamy shouted so the passengers on all levels could hear. “We’re going to get rattled!” His other hand came up to his head after he yelled.

“You’ve got to take it easy, Bellamy,” Clarke said, squeezing his hand. “Your brain’s been rattled. How are you feeling? Queasy?”

He grimaced. “I’m fine. Just a little motion sickness, princess.” 

“Yeah, right. Dammit Bellamy.”

“Hey, I didn’t enter into that gladiator fight willingly. And I certainly didn’t throw it on purpose. Glad I never faced Dax in the ring. Your prince saved my life.”

She wanted to argue with him about calling Wells her prince, or about anything, for that matter. She had been so scared. She still was. Arguing would be good. 

The drop ship jolted. Bellamy held tight to her hand. Screams echoed out on all the levels.

“That’s the chutes,” Monty said, in his quiet voice. 

“It’s the chutes! That’s all!” Clarke called to the levels. “Hold on. We’re almost there.” The screams stilled to muted squeaks. She thought they might all be terrified. Most of the refugees hadn’t chosen the trip to earth willingly, it had been this or certain death on the Ark. She was terrified, and it was her plan, chosen of her free will. Of her own desire. And then through the terrible noise and jolting, everyone grasping desperately to their straps and seats, suddenly they were still.

Movement stops. Clarke looks at Bellamy, his eyes vaguely glazed, but focusing eventually on her. His hand had never left hers, and she feels him squeeze it now. “We made it,” she said.

“We actually did not blow up,” Bellamy grinned. “Not on separation or through space or in the atmosphere. The parachutes deployed. We did not crash and burn. It’s a fucking miracle.”

“It’s a fucking miracle!” Raven whooped.

“Listen,” Monty says. “It’s so quiet.”

“The engines stopped.” Jasper said.

“We’re on the ground,” Clarke said in amazement. “We’re actually on Earth.”

Bellamy squeezed her hand and unbuckled his seat. “Well let’s go then.” He smiled.

Clarke unbuckled her seat belt, her eyes wide. “This is it. We find out if we can survive on the Earth.” Bellamy stood and pulled her to her feet.

“Yeah we do.”

“Bell, be careful. Your head.”

“I’m feeling better,” he grinned.

“Liar.” All around them, her friends were un-clicking. Standing. There was her mom, crouching over Miller, who did not look good at all. Shit. She rushed over. Abby had Wells and Wick laying him out on a platform. “I’m afraid the bullet collapsed his lung. He needs surgery,” Octavia was already there with the med kit. 

“Portable image resonator,” Octavia said, handing the tool to Abby. 

Abby looked up at the woman and smiled. “Yes. Thank you. You are handy, aren’t you?” She took the resonator and turned it on. “Bullet in the left superior lobe. I need to get that out of there and close it up.”

“What do we do, Clarke?” Octavia asked her.

“I’ll assist, Octavia, you go with Bellamy to check out the ground.”

“Clarke,” Bellamy said. “Who’s going to monitor us for radiation symptoms?”

“Oh,” she said. She couldn’t believe she forgot. This was all an experiment and she was in charge. “If I have been wrong about this, we’re all dead anyway the moment we open that door.” 

Bellamy drew his eyebrows together and shook his head, very carefully. “We all knew the risks. Death down here or death up there. But you aren’t wrong about it. We believe in you. And we need you to provide them,” he pointed up at the sky, “with evidence that you’ve been right all along.”

“Clarke,” Abby said. “He’s right. We believe in you and you need to see this project through. It’s a matter of life and death not just for Nathan, or the rest of us down here, or even the Ark, but all of humanity.” Abby looked at her with such conviction, such belief. Clarke was shocked for a minute. She never thought her mother believed in her that much. “Go outside with the 100. I will have Octavia to assist.” Abby looked at Octavia. Octavia nodded. 

“Go, Clarke,” Abby said. We have this.

“Wait!” Clarke said. “The monitors. We have to get them up and running so the tests will have accurate information. Finn took the monitors. Finn!”

Finn climbed down the ladder from the second level. “Here,” he said.

“Did everyone get fitted with a wristband?” She asked.

“Everyone up there. I just finished up with them. They are all waiting to be told what to do next. I bet if you turned on those things now, they’d show just how much adrenaline is going on up there.”

“Of course.” Clarke said. “Finn, get one of those on Miller so my mom can monitor his vitals better, and then get whoever you missed before. Monty, can you activate them?” Monty was hovering, off to the side, watching Abby work on Miller anxiously.

“Sure, yeah. I downloaded the program and… the signal to the ark is working… I’m going to need to scan everyone to link their wristbands to their Ark records, but I don’t have everyone. The seconds aren’t in the system.”

“Damn, I wish I had access to my clinic medical records. I have most of their data in there.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot. I have your medical records in my files.”

“You have my files? How did you.. Why did you?”

“Clarke, I knew what was going on. I wanted to do all I could to help us out down here, and this is what I can do. I hacked into the system and got all the information I could. I would have told you, but…I’m sorry. I’m a little… distracted.” His eyes shot to Abby and Miller. 

Clarke grabbed his wrist and pulled Monty close. “He’ll be okay. My mom is the best doctor on the Ark… on Earth.” He nodded as if to reassure himself.

“Okay. I’ll get my head back in the game.” He took a deep breath and scanned Clarke’s wristband. There was a beep and a green light flashed. “You’re in the system.”

Jasper came up and took the tablet out of Monty’s hands. “I’ll do it. I’ll be in charge of scanning everyone and when I’ve got them, I’ll bring it back for you to take care of. You’ve got enough on your mind.” Jasper looked up at him, thankful, his eyes welling just a little bit. 

“I’m not sure what else I’m going to do to keep myself distracted,” he said. 

“Fine. Let’s do it together.” Jasper and Monty went over to activate Millers wristband and Clarke turned to Bellamy.

“So it looks like we’re not just going to rip the door open and run, sounding our barbaric yawps out over a radiation soaked eden, huh?”

She barked out a laugh. “You idiot. We’re not delinquents.”

“Yes we are,” he said and smiled. 

“Well, we’re not delinquent teenagers. And besides, I need to examine you and make sure you didn’t split your skull open. And Harper has a bullet wound and Wells is limping.”

“I’m okay,” Wells said from where he was standing at the closed door, his arms crossed, surveying the situation as they organized and, not coincidentally guarding the lever so no one broke out to sound their barbaric yawp and irradiate everyone ahead of time.

“The hell he is,” Octavia said over her shoulder as she helped Abby out. “Over there, Clarke. I left out what you need.” On one of the seats, Octavia had left the image resonator, bandages, a suture kit and meds. “That knuckle head isn’t okay either. “The other knucklehead isn’t okay either.” She nodded toward Bellamy.

“Stop mothering me, O.”

Clarke didn’t even listen to him. She grabbed up the image resonator and ran it above his head. 

She breathed a huge sigh of relief. “You’ll be fine. Thanks to your hard head, not even a crack. Just your big brain jostling around in there.”

“I told you I was fine.”

“But your nose is broken. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I don’t know, it’s just a general feeling of pain in that whole region.” He waved his hand in front of his face. She slapped it down.

“I have to set it.” She put both hands to his face and her thumbs on either side of his nose, and looked into his eyes.

“Protecting my pretty face, princess?”

“I’ll never stop,” Clarke said, and then shoved her thumbs to the right and felt the bones snap back into place. He let out a yell and grimaced. “There,” she said. “You got your yawp. Are you in pain anywhere else?”

He sighed. “I guess my side.”

She ran the portable resonator over that. “Just bruising. Nothing serious. I’ll give you some painkillers, they will help you rest and heal.”

“I need my wits about me, Clarke.” His brown eyes looked into hers. They were about to be the first human to step foot on the Earth in 100 years. 

“And that means you have to be in pain?” She snapped back at him. 

He cocked his head at her. “I can take it.”

“Fine. Take this ibuprofen.” She turned to Wells.

“Help Harper first. She’s bleeding. I can wait.”

“Idiots! Both of you,” she said, but stitched up and bandaged Harper’s bullet wound and then finally was able to wrap Wells’ ankle. There were a few more injuries she needed to tend to, and then there they were. All of them scanned, with their vital signs being monitored. The signals were being sent back to the Ark, although Clarke had no idea if anyone was paying any attention up there. As long as the baseline records were in the system, the test would be accurate. Abby was closing up Miller and his prognosis was good and everyone was there. Waiting. 

“Are we ready?” Clarke asked, looking up at Bellamy, who did look like he was feeling better.

“We’re ready, Clarke.” He turned to the assembled 100. “Are we ready?” He called out to them. 

“YES!” they responded and it was deafening. 

Clarke took a deep breath and put her hand to the lever to open the door of the drop ship to the Earth, finally. She glanced up at Bellamy, nervously. “Together?” she asked him.

He smiled, covered her hand with his, and nodded. “Together.”

They opened the door.


	24. Like Sweetness and Joy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Earth. Finally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really thought I was going to be able to get to the end of this story today, but this is not the last chapter. There's another one coming. I just really needed to have Reese and Tor Lemkin in my story. Really needed them. I'd been counting on it from the very beginning, actually. And they wanted their own chapter.

The earth was better than Clarke had ever dreamed.

She never realized how much of a full body experience being on the Earth was, from the sun shining down on her, warming her, blinding her, to the weight of the atmosphere pressing her feet into the earth, which was SOFT, it gave beneath her, and released this deep, dark aroma of rot and greenery and growth and what she could only assume was the scent of life itself. Even the air tasted alive. It wasn’t just the canned oxygen of the ark, it was full of flavors and scents and temperature and moisture. The Earth got inside her, the moment Clarke and Bellamy opened the drop ship door and stepped out, together.

“You doing okay, there?” Bellamy asked from behind her. 

Clarke turned around and smiled at him. “I should be asking you the same question. How’s your head?”

“It hurts, but I’ll be okay. You’re the one staring off into space.”

She shook her head, as if to wake herself up from a trance. “I got a little distracted, is all.”

Bellamy smiled back. “That’s okay, you’re allowed. We made it to Earth and everyone is alive. And, Clarke WE are alive. You were right. And Earth is amazing.”

“It’s amazing, you’re right, but we’re alive right now. There’s no guarantee we will stay that way. Just because the radiation didn’t kill us on contact doesn’t mean that it isn’t slowly killing us.”

“You’re so optimistic,” Bellamy said. “What’s wrong with enjoying it while we have it?”

She rolled her eyes. 

“And anyway, Clarke, your mom is monitoring our vitals while she’s keeping an eye on Miller. We’re all doing fine, including Miller.”

“Right now,” Clarke said ominously. “There are a million ways for us to die on this planet, not just radiation. Animal attacks, starvation, weather exposure, illness, poison, accidents.”

“Clarke…” Bellamy said. 

Clarke knew that her anxieties were getting away with her. She felt so responsible for everyone on the ground. It was her plan, her project, her drop ship. And they were all down here alone, on an empty, hostile planet. “Did Monty get a link open to the Ark?” Clarke asked, turning away from the beauty of the Earth that was so distracting.

“Not yet. Listen, don’t worry so much. We’ve got a good bunch with us. For all that Finn is annoying…”

Clarke gave him a look. She didn’t really like to talk about her history with Finn and she knew that Bellamy was still pissed off about what Finn did to Clarke and Raven. 

“For all that Finn is annoying,” he pressed on, glaring, “He’s the best we’ve got when it comes to Earth Skills. There’s a reason why they tapped him to teach it when Miss Marla retired. I’ve got him on a mission to find us a good source of water. He says that’s the first priority for survival, and Wells agrees.”

“Fine, we’ve got Finn looking out for water. Is he dependable?” The truth was, she still didn’t quite trust him.

Bellamy laughed. “Octavia volunteered to go with him and keep an eye on him.” 

Clarke shot him a glance. “And who did you send with her to keep an eye on her and make sure she wasn’t in danger?” she said, because she knew Bellamy when it came to protecting his little sister.

Bellamy made a face. “I’ve got your guy going with her.”

“My guy?” she asked, since she knew her guy was standing right there with her.

“Wells,” he said shortly.

Clarke laughed. “Oh, you trust Wells with your sister,” she teased but it made her so happy. “You know she’s been flirting with him.”

“He saved my life,” Bellamy said gruffly. “And you trust him. Besides, I also have Jasper with them, looking for edible food sources. He thinks we should test all the food for radiation, but I think if it’s irradiated, so are we. The question is whether or not we can survive the radiation, not how to avoid it.”

“I don’t know about that, Bellamy—“ Clarke started before they were interrupted.

“Uhm, excuse me…” a girl came up to them. She was one of the refugees from Factory. She had long hair and bright eyes. “Doctor Griffin?”

Clarke turned to her. “Oh, Reese! How are you?” Reese had come in to her clinic after getting into a fight in the halls after-hours. She hadn’t wanted her father to find out, or anyone else. But she had visited Clarke off and on for a while. Mostly, Clarke thought, just to talk to someone. She’d been getting involved with some dangerous kids back on Factory, and she’d been scared. “I missed you,” she said. Not really wanting to say that she was glad to see her on Earth, that she’d had her life turned upside down, that her life was in danger.

Reese didn’t bother with any of that. She just ran up to Clarke and hugged her. “I love it here,” she said. “Thank you. It’s like I can finally see in color. And it’s all because of you, Dr Griffin.”

Clarke shook her head. “Call me Clarke, Reese. None of that stuff from up there matters anymore. All we have is each other.” 

“Okay, Clarke,” Reese said and smiled.

“Do you know Bellamy?” Clarke said and was surprised by the heated blush rising to Reese’s cheeks. She ducked her head.

“Hi Reese. I’m glad you’re on Earth with us.” Bell smiled widely at the girl. Who then hid behind her hair, hanging on to Clarke’s wrist.

“Hi, Guardsman Blake,” she squeaked out, peeking out through her hair.

“Call me Bellamy,” he said.

Reese looked up at Clarke, her eyes wide and pleading. She leaned in close to Clarke, as if she wanted to tell her a secret. “Is it true? Are you Bellamy’s girlfriend?” she whispered. 

Clarke looked up at Bellamy, who was watching them curiously, a small grin crooking his lips. “Yeah.”

Reese took a deep breath and closed her eyes briefly. She nodded then and opened her eyes. “I’m glad it’s you,” she said quietly. “You deserve him.”

“I don’t know if it’s about deserving, Reese, but I love him.” She wasn’t whispering anymore, and he caught her quiet voice, his warm eyes going liquid as he looked at her. 

“Reese!” a voice called from the tree line. “Reese! I told you, don’t bother them. We can wait until Finn comes back. They are busy.”

A man stepped out into the clearing. He looked tired, and worried. 

“Dad,” Reese said, embarrassment in her voice. “It’s okay. I know them.” She looked back at Clarke. “It’s okay, right?

“Of course, I told you, it’s just us down here. What is it?”

“Oh, well, I kind of got distracted,” she shot her eyes towards Bellamy but then focused again on Clarke. “But me and my dad, we found some berries, and we thought it might be important. I mean. I don’t know if they are poisonous or what, but you’re a doctor. You would know what we can eat or not. Right?”

“I don’t know,” Clarke said. “I can check it out.”

“Dad, show her.”

The man looked at her suspiciously then at Bellamy. He stepped up to the man.

“Let me see, Mr Lemkin. A lot of berries are poisonous. We need to make sure.”

“Tor,” Reese said as she came up to them, smiling shyly. She reached into the bag that her father was carrying and pulled out a green plant with some tiny bright red berries hanging from it.”

“Nice bag, Tor.” Bellamy said as he took the plant in his hands, looking at it with a look of concentration.

“We, uh, made it out of the parachute and seat belts… so we could carry these back.”

“Those are strawberries, I think,” Clarke said, coming up to them to see the plant. They grew them on Agro, but she knew they were expensive. Even those who lived on Alpha only had strawberries for special occasions. “But they’re much smaller than the ones I know. The leaves look right, though.”

“Strawberries?” Bellamy asked, one eyebrow cocked. He pulled one jewel like berry off of the plant in his hand and popped it in his mouth.

“Bellamy! No. I don’t know! What if I’m wrong? What if it’s poisonous? Or you can’t handle ingesting the radiation?”

Both his eyebrows shot up. He closed his eyes in pleasure. “If it were poisonous, I don’t think it would taste so good,” he said. He plucked off another tiny berry and held it out to Clarke. All she needed to do was open her mouth.

“But… the radiation…” Clarke said, even though she really wanted it.

“If we can’t eat what we find on the Earth because of the radiation, we’re dead anyway. This is worth it, Clarke.” He nodded, urging her to open her mouth.

Her brows drew together but she opened her lips and he popped the berry into her mouth. She blinked as she bit down and then closed her eyes. “Mmmmm” she hummed. “Definitely a strawberry, but so much better than on the Ark.”

“Go ahead,” Bellamy said to Tor and Reese. They each reached out and plucked a berry from the plant. Tor nodded to his daughter and they ate the berries at the same time. They looked at each other and started laughing. Both of them, full of delight. Peals of laughter rising up into the open sky.

Clarke smiled. This was not the girl who came to see her at the clinic because she was afraid of going through the halls to her quarters alone. Or maybe she was the same. Maybe they were all the same, they were just finally free to enjoy what it really meant to be human on the planet where they belonged. 

Clarke laughed with them and Bellamy joined in, grabbing Clarke around the waist and twirling her around. “Be careful, Bell, your ribs,” she said.

“I don’t care, Princess.” He put her down and grinned at her. “We might be dead tomorrow, but this is worth it.”

She laughed. “Yeah okay. It’s not as if we can control what the radiation does to us.”

“Your calculations are right, Clarke. We are going to make a home down here.”

She nodded, then surged up into his kiss. His tongue tasted like strawberries, like Earth, like sweetness and joy, and it was everything.


	25. The Air is Fine Down Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The 100 are on the ground. They made it. Alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I fluffed.

“Clarke,” Monty called, sticking his head out of the drop ship. “I got the link. Or they did. Anyway, we’re up, and Chancellor Jaha wants to talk to you.”

She stepped back from Bellamy and he grimaced. “I guess it’s time you deal with the Chancellor.”

“What do you mean me? You’re coming with me. We’re doing this together.” She grabbed his hand and hauled him into the drop ship, easing up only when he winced after a particularly strong yank. He was always so stoic, it was sometimes hard to remember he did actually feel pain and those bruises and breaks were real. She kissed his cheek and they both sat down at the monitor that Monty had rigged together.

Thelonious Jaha glared sternly at her from the screen.

“Chancellor Jaha,” she said, feeling like a child again who had gotten into trouble from running in the halls with Wells. 

“Doctor Griffin,” he responded. “And who is this?” He nodded at Bellamy. “I’m afraid I don’t have the pleasure of his acquaintance.”

Clarke looked over at Bellamy, wondering, all of a sudden if he wanted it known that he was partly responsible for this mess. She shouldn’t have worried. He took her hand. 

“Bellamy Blake, sir.”

“Ah. Blake. A rising guardsman from factory. Kane speaks highly of you. Octavia Blake is your sister.”

Bellamy showed his surprise. “You know who I am?”

“I know every soul on the Ark. Including the ones who have left. I have a list, thanks to the information link being sent to engineering with medical data.”

“We’re alive, Chancellor Jaha. We seem to be resistant to the levels of radiation on the surface,” Clarke said. “Initial stats are positive and the outlook for human rehabitation is optimistic.”

Even via the screen image, Clarke could see the light in his eyes. He pulled it back. “It remains to be seen if we can risk the last of humanity on the possible livability of a toxic, irradiated planet,” he left open a possibility, and Clarke smiled.

Bellamy leaned forward. “Chancellor Jaha, sir. We just tasted wild strawberries. A girl and her father plucked them. From the ground. They were the sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted.” He met Clarke’s eyes and she smiled at him. “Someday soon, you will bring the rest of the Ark population down here and they will get to taste them too.” 

Clarke watched Jaha’s face grow wistful, then he focused himself.

“You have a lot to explain, Dr Griffin, Guardsman Blake. You stole a drop ship and helped a hundred fugitives escape punishment. I assume this means you were indeed part of the insurrectionist movement, just as the rumors claimed.”

Clarke grimaced and then nodded. “And where did those rumors come from, Chancellor?”

The Chancellor had the grace to look contrite. “Diana Sydney,” he said. Clarke raised her eyebrows.

“You’re welcome, by the way.”

“For what? Being rebels and causing destruction and fear among the Ark stations? The citizens of the Ark are living in fear, under curfew. All non essential work has stopped. We are literally fighting to gain control of Factory as we speak.”

“For killing Diana Sydney and half of her rebel army. And we did it without having to de oxygenate all the innocent citizens on Factory.”

Jaha stared at her. “Diana is dead?”

Clarke looked back at him. He expression frozen, not really knowing how to feel. Remembering the way the scalpel had sliced into Diana Sydney’s neck and how hot her blood was on Clarke’s hand, the way her eyes bulged as she looked at her, knowing her end was moments away and Clarke had been the one to bring it.

“I killed her with my own hands.” Clarke said. Her voice sounded flat even to her. Bellamy held on tightly to her hand. 

The silence on the connection stretched on. For a minute, Clarke thought that they had lost the chancellor, but then he blinked.

“I have footage,” Monty volunteered from where he was monitoring the feed from his tablet. “Of the whole thing. I can send it.”

“Do you want to see the footage, Chancellor Jaha?” Clarke asked.

His throat bobbed. “Yes. I feel like I need to.” 

“You’ll find that we eliminated Sydney, and half of her rebel army that tried to hijack our ship.”

“My ship.” Jaha said, “The ship that you stole from the Ark. This is not to be forgotten.”

Clarke nodded to Monty. Clarke watched the Chancellor watch the footage, his face giving away nothing. 

“You are fighting to regain control of Factory station, you said. That means that Diana’s army did not manage to blow up Alpha like they intended. So either our warning got to you in time to stop that from happening, or our own victory over the rebels army and the death of their leader cut their legs out from under them, making them unable to go on the offense against Alpha.”

Chancellor Jaha gave away nothing but his stone face. “This doesn’t change the fact that you and your fugitives are criminals and rebels, traitors to the Ark.”

Clarke felt her temper rise. She opened her mouth to retort, to defend their intentions, but Bellamy put one hand on her arm to calm her. He shook his head the most infinitesimal amount and turned to Jaha.

“Chancellor Jaha, our actions were not rebellion.”

The Chancellor’s facade cracked for one moment, and Clarke saw the disbelief and fury, before he schooled his features once more. “Explain.”

“This was a mission, sir, engineered and organized by top officials in the science administration, and the council, with approval from the Chancellors office, to find a way to relieve the tensions within the Ark. This is a scientific mission, sir, to test the Arker ability to withstand the radiation on earth. So that we can go home.”

Stone face. “Amusing. Abby Griffin is a criminal, as well as a traitor, but she was never removed from the Council. We never got the chance. The Chancellor’s office most certainly did not approve this mission. I never heard—“ He stopped. Blinked. “Wells.” Clarke honestly couldn’t tell if his reaction was anger or grief. “His vitals are being recorded along with the rest of the 100 rebels.”

Clarke nodded. “This mission was set into motion by Wells, sir. My original proposal has already been through the council. It would have happened eventually, but due to the pressures of the rebellion and your sudden extreme measure disciplinary measures, the start date was moved up.”

“You know,” Bellamy added, “And we know that we did not get official permission for this mission, but no one else has to know this. For all the rest of the Ark is aware, you authorized this mission to Earth. To save the people of the Ark from war and destruction and to bring us home ahead of schedule.”

Jaha’s eyes narrowed. He said nothing, just looked at them through the screen.

“The thing is, Chancellor Jaha, we’re alive. The mission, so far, is a success. Our stats are strong and healthy. There is no sign at all of negative response to the Earth radiation. It’s still too early to say for sure, but all initial tests are successful. It looks like Earth is survivable. Chancellor. We can come back to the Earth.”

Clarke could see the emotion on his face. Perhaps someone else, who hadn’t grown up with his son wouldn’t be able to, but she could. She could see the wonder behind his stern facade. 

“There is hope to give to the people of Ark Station,” Clarke said. “And you can give them that hope.”

He blinked at her.

“All you have to do is keep the Ark together until we can deliver more complete results, and organize the exodus.” Bellamy added. Clarke looked at him. He was smirking. She really wasn’t sure if communication with the Chancellor of the Ark should include smirking, but then again, they weren’t on the Ark. They were on the Earth and not under his dominion anymore. She felt her heart swell. 

“Is that all I have to do?” Chancellor Jaha asked, but there was humor there. Clarke stopped trying to restrain her smile. 

“Give them hope, Chancellor Jaha.”

“Hope?” 

“Yes, sir. Hope. It looks like we can come home. We made it. We survived the apocalypse. We survived space. And sir,” Clarke said, her smile stretching across her face. “It feels so good to walk on the Earth. The air…it’s so fresh…” she breathed, “The air is fine down here.”

Chancellor Jaha nodded at that. “Yes,” he said. “This is a hope that would be good for the people of Ark Station.”

In the end, Clarke and Bellamy won from Jaha a promise to revise their status from rebels to scientific mission, and organized a regular communication schedule between the 100 colonists and engineering, medical and security departments on the Ark. The battle for Ark station still continued, but because of their actions at the drop ship bay, the tide had turned. They finished their meeting with Jaha and stepped back out into the wilderness of Earth just as Wells, Finn and Octavia came back into camp, with big grins. 

“We found water!” Octavia yelled across the camp, her fist pumping in the air, triumphant. 

Raven and Wick had rigged a series of tents out of parachute material and tree branches, and had organized refugees into building more of them. 

Abby walked up to them as they descended from the drop ship. “This,” she said, her eyes wide and brimming, “Is so much better than I imagined,” she said. “A few hours ago, I was resigning myself to being floated, and yet, now, here I am, on Earth.” She laughed and went in for a hug.

To Clarke and Bellamy’s surprise, she wrapped her arms around them both, pulling them in to her embrace. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you. I am so proud of you. You made this happen. And now we have this.”

“Well, mom,” Clarke said, a little shocked at her mother’s optimism and joy, “The test hasn’t actually been completed. We don’t know for—“

“Oh Clarke,” her mom interrupted, laughing. “Stop being a stick in the mud. Get out there and enjoy this world. Tomorrow we could be dead. You deserve a little fun.” She grinned again and kissed Clarke on the cheek, then she turned to the other side and kissed Bellamy on his cheek. “I get what she sees in you,” she grinned, then turned around and walked off into a group of refugees calling for her help.

“What just happened?” Clarke asked Bellamy.

He snorted. “I think the universe shifted,” he said, “Or, you know, mankind returned to Earth for the first time in one hundred years.”

“Oh right.” She laughed, and the sunlight fell on her face, shining in her eyes. She wrapped her arms around Bellamy’s neck and fell into him. He put his arms around her and lifted her feet up off the ground, spinning her around. She closed her eyes. Just drinking it all in.

Whatever happened tomorrow, whatever danger or illness might present itself, today they were here, alive and safe and happy, with their feet on the Earth and the sky arching above, blue and bright. And it was enough.

 

FINITO

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew! That was a monster. Nanowrimo really got in the way of it. And then I forgot about my infamous December writing slump, which got in the way even more. But here it is, all done. 
> 
> There might be some stories for how these 100 get along on the ground and who/what/when/how they meet the grounders and/or mountain men, but I make no promises. If I do continue, it will be in a series. This story is done, this chapter is the denouement. I decided that no one needed to die, and so they all lived and ate strawberries. 
> 
> I just started blogging over on tumblr, I make no promises there, either, just some the 100 stuff, feminism, writing, other fandoms. Just having fun.   
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/rosymamacita

**Author's Note:**

> Nanowrimo has started and I just wanted to say that I am actually still working on this story. Do not give up on me. But posts will be less frequent, as my output is mainly going towards my nanowrimo novel. 
> 
> I am working on the next chapter, but it's going much more slowly. If you're doing nanowrimo and you'd like to buddy up, I'm rosymamacita over there, too. Just give me a shout out so I know where you're coming from.


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